Not even Amara had captivated him like this
by Saffy2510
Summary: Kilas story. After Silas escaped the tomb, he couldn't stop thinking about the one who freed him, the shadow of his one true love, so he goes looking for her. And he just watches, his infatuation with her slowly growing into something more... I know these two are dead, but they were two of my favourite characters on the show and I just had to write this :-)
1. Chapter 1

**I know this ship pairing was practically impossible in the show and a year old, but I've had this idea in my head for months and just really wanted to write it. Also, these were my favourite characters and I hated that they died. It is a one or two shot, I don't know yet.**

**Let me know what you think and I hope you like it :-).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith, and parts of other storylines that belong to them are mentioned, but this story is mine.**

When Silas first broke out of that tomb, the first thing that had come back to him was her face leaning over him, pressing the Hunter's neck to his mouth. It had only been a split second, but he could never forget _her_ face. He knew instantly from the fierce expression of triumph she had worn that it had been a shadow self of Amara and that he had yet to find his, but her face was still stuck in his head, he couldn't forget it.

He had to know who she was.

It wasn't anything to do with the fact she had stolen the cure, he just wanted to see her.

So after Silas had stockpiled on blood, he followed the Original female vampire and Amara's _other_ doppelganger to Pennsylvania where she was rumoured to be staying. He wanted to believe that his infatuation with her didn't go beyond her looks, but he knew that wasn't true because when he looked at the other doppelganger-Elena Gilbert, he'd learned from probing her mind, he didn't feel anything. Her face, her hair wasn't imprinted on his brain like the other's was. Not even Amara had captivated him like this.

It excited and terrified him at the same time.

After the two Originals, Elena, Damon and Stefan had left after trying to find the cure, he spent days just watching her, learning her ways, how she tricked and compelled the town, and he finally knew her name, plucking it off the thoughts of one of the human inhabitants whilst using his compulsion on him.

_Katherine Pierce._

Survivor and hunted by Klaus. Many had been killed, manipulated or used in her name, but it wasn't because she was evil, or had a heart made of stone.

It was because she was broken.

She had let hatred and fear consume her and control her actions after running for five hundred years from the Original hybrid, Klaus. All this, Silas had learned, from days of trying to access her mind and memories in a bid to find out more about her.

It had been harder than reading the Original vampire Rebekah's mind to find the white oak stake, which just intrigued and impressed him further. She was strong indeed.

When he had returned to Mystic Falls the day before, to continue his plans to make the expression triangle, he had hesitated. For the first time in two thousand years, he didn't want to die and reunite with Amara. All because of Katherine Pierce.

Silas hadn't even met her and she made him want to live. Make up for the time he'd lost in that cave, encased in stone, hunger and pain driving him insane, rapidly taking over his body.

It didn't matter though. The triangle had been completed thanks to Caroline Forbes, sacrificing twelve lives in order to save her best friend, who also happened to be the descendant of the horrible, tortuous witch who had originally trapped him the caves, Bonnie Bennett.

He didn't know whether to be pleased or angry.

He'd decided to go with pleased and finalise his suicidal plans anyway, after learning Katherine was with the eldest Original, Elijah, knowing she would never be his, despite the doppelganger prophecy. Besides, whatever his feelings for her, he loved Amara, he was certain of that.

So when Silas had made Klaus think he was dying from the white oak stake-if Klaus hadn't been focused on fearing for his life so much, he would have, _should_ have known that the stake was indestructible-but anyway, Silas had gotten what he wanted and Klaus had gotten what he deserved, so it didn't really matter.

He'd wanted to believe that he was torturing Klaus because he wanted him to find the cure, (since Silas couldn't get into Katherine's head far enough to find out where it went) but he knew he'd just be fooling himself.

He was doing it for Katherine, since Klaus had destroyed her and shattered her life just because she didn't want to die. She survived; she didn't live, constantly bowed over with fear.

Now, here was the chance to make sure Klaus suffered for that.

He was angry to learn that, after a few hours, the compulsion wore off thanks to Caroline Forbes _again_. Silas could understand Klaus' love for her, she was beautiful, bright and optimistic, but twice she had thwarted his plans and was becoming a problem. He may have to do something about her.

But, the message was received and that was the important thing.

He then eventually went back to Katherine's town, just to watch her all over again. Through excruciating effort, he learnt that she had given the cure to Elijah, meaning Elijah would give it to Klaus or Rebekah, who wanted to be human again, another thing he learnt from Katherine's mind.

After all those weeks of looking at her, Silas finally wanted to meet her, _needed_, to meet her. So, as Katherine left her house, he just walked right up to her, taking on his true form-Stefan, someone who she also happened to be very fond of, judging from her memories of him.

Maybe the doppelganger prophecy was true after all.

"Stefan?" Katherine asked, confusion laced in her voice.

_Even more beautiful than Amara_, he thought. Her voice had a slight lilt to it, a faint accent, hidden over the past centuries.

"Hey" Silas replied, giving her a small smile, while his heart jumped with joy.

"What are you doing here? Last I saw you, you were helping hold me hostage to find the cure for your precious Elena" her tone dripped with meanness, sarcasm. Silas suddenly realised she may cover it up well, but Katherine was hurt and betrayed by Stefan's actions. He felt anger at his shadow-self on her behalf.

"Yeah, about that, I just came to apologise. We all shouldn't have pushed you for a cure Elena doesn't even want." Silas answered quickly, thinking on his feet.

"Ookay, well I'm gonna go. I've got somewhere I need to be." She muttered, her voice still dubious, but losing some of the sarcasm and becoming warmer.

He nodded and let her pass as she smiled and pushed past him.

_Yep, I have it bad_, Silas thought, heart still hammering at the image of her smiling at him.

He looked forward to meeting her again. He couldn't wait until then.

Maybe he should delay his plans to destroy the other side a little longer, now he had someone to live for.

**Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and tell me if I made any mistakes :-)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is my next chapter, depending on what you think I may add another chapter, afterwards, although I said two-shot because I love these two!**

**Disclaimer: The characters belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec not me. This story however, is mine.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

It was nearly a month before Silas spoke to her again. Since then, his feelings hadn't changed, just developed into something more, something stronger.

And she may not ever know how he felt simply because he was also in love with another woman and was too scared to tell her how he felt. She hadn't even met _him_ essentially, she thought he was Stefan, hadn't suspected who he might really be.

The last time he spoke to her he'd planned ahead for it, although he had been knocked breathless by how beautiful she was, in body _and_ mind.

The next time he met her he never saw it coming.

She was back in Mystic Falls, with Qetsiyah's headstone which Bonnie, who believed Silas couldn't get into her head anymore and was avoiding him wanted to do the expression spell to drop the veil to the other side. He laughed at her gullibility. She really thought she was one step ahead of him? If Klaus had been terrified of him then what was stopping him getting into her head?

He'd been following Bonnie, projecting himself into her mind to put himself ahead of her in this power struggle they were caught in, since it was obvious she would betray him. The sheer sight of Katherine walking into the café shocked him enough to relinquish his psychic hold on Bonnie.

She was astounding, her hair, dark, vicarious and shining, cascading down her shoulders in natural ringlets, something he didn't know where she had got it since Amara had had straight hair, her skin hugging leather trousers showing off her amazing figure. Although he thought the modern clothes worn in this century were far too bright, complicated and revealing, Katherine managed to look good in everything.

From his view disguised as a customer, he knew they were talking about using Qetsiyah's headstone to drop the veil-and it didn't even have to be on a full moon, much to his astonishment.

Qetsiyah had played him to the very end.

After she left, he followed shortly after her, intent on talking to her again.

Only this time he wanted to meet her as himself.

Dropping his disguise, he followed her stealthily towards the Salvatore Boarding House. Interesting. Why was she needed there? His descendants were trying to turn Elena Gilbert's emotions back on, he was curious as to how that affected Katherine, who hated her doppelganger with a fierce intensity.

It was now or never. Silas blew out slowly through his teeth, straightened his jacket and made himself known to her, appearing directly in front of her, cutting her off from her route a few minutes away from her destination.

"Stefan, what are you doing? You said to come to the Boarding House, why are you meeting me here?" Katherine asked, clearly frustrated. Silas knew she would get angry quickly, if she didn't feel like she was in control of the situation. She also still wasn't very pleased with Stefan over what happened in Pennsylvania, judging from her pursed lips, raised eyebrows, eyes darkening slightly in rage. She clearly didn't forgive and forget easily.

_Here goes nothing_, he thought.

"Katherine, Stefan is still expecting you at the Boarding House. I'm the immortal witch Silas you freed back in that cave in Scotia Novia. Stefan is my doppelganger. Before," he said, all in one go, so quickly she may not have heard it if she wasn't a vampire and holding a finger to her opening mouth.

"You ask any questions or panic, I want you to not be scared, and to not run off. I just wanted to..." he trailed off, after compelling her, leaning down and kissing her soft, smooth lips, cupping her face in his hand before he lost his nerve.

It was perfect-Silas thought he could see fireworks. A warmth shot through his body, filling him from head to toe, it felt like electricity was buzzing on his lips.

He didn't want to stop.

But he forced himself to pull away before she had time to react, leaving him with the intense desire to kiss her again.

She was stunned; her mouth had formed a little o as she tried to process what had happened.

As much as he would have liked her to remember this, he knew she would probably tell everyone, panicked for her life and that would just urge Bonnie on to start the expression spell even more.

Smoothing her hair with his hands he looked into her beautiful chocolate brown eyes and said softly "As much as I want you to remember this, you can't. I don't want people knowing who I am yet. You're going to forget you met me here, that I told you who I am and that I kissed you. For now, at least. But be happy, live and be who you want to be." he smiled sadly, tears forming in his eyes as he slipped away from her view.

He watched her blink a few times, shake her head slightly, and keep on walking in those high-heeled boots she seemed to love so much.

He wasn't worried, they had an eternity in this world together, he was sure they would meet again. But, right now, he had a spell to stop.

**What do you think? Should I continue, or leave it here? Please tell me your opinions and thank you for reading! Your reviews, follows and favourites mean a lot! :-)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you SO much for your reviews! They are really appreciated, please, keep them coming! Lol! :-) I hope you like this!**

**Disclaimer: These characters and parts of other storylines involved in this chapter are owned by Julie Plec and L.J Smith. This story belongs to me.**

When Silas learnt that Katherine had been fed the cure, his heart shattered into pieces. He completely flipped, throwing furniture around the room. He'd been placed into the worst dilemma possible.

If he wanted to take the cure, he would have to drain Katherine of her blood, thus killing her. If he didn't, he faced eternity without her or Amara.

He tried to kidnap her after the summer and locking away his shadow self, to find a way to help change her back into a vampire, but his efforts had been... violent to say the least. He'd feared she would refuse to come with him, so was planning on knocking her out, but she'd attacked him just as violently with a razor and ran for it.

She really was a survivor through and through.

So he compelled the entire town to find her, in another desperate attempt to help her.

Part of him regretted compelling her at all, the situation would have been a lot more different.

When Silas went to visit Elena to find Jeremy's whereabouts at college masquerading as Stefan, all he wanted to do whilst there was break the façade he was playing in order to find Katherine and rip off her head for forcing that cure down Katherine's throat. It really amazed him how alike she looked to Amara and Katherine and yet how little he liked her.

So he left Damon with the little gift of Elena with a surging, uncontrollable rage at him as payback for how they treated Katherine. Two birds with one stone.

It wasn't enough, by a long shot, but it gave him some satisfaction, since he also found out Jeremy's, and so Katherine's location. He was practically bursting with excitement as he headed over to the campsite where they were supposed to be.

He didn't know what it was about her that drew him to her like a moth to a flame, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

He thought about her every waking moment and about the kiss they shared and how he would much he would like to do that again.

When Silas arrived in the middle of the night, he saw no signs of movement to suggest anyone was there at first. Then he saw the blond boy, heading out for wood armed with a matchet and a lamp; Matt Donovan, he believed.

Silently walking up behind him, he began compelling Matt, shuffling through his mind to find Katherine.

"Stop. You can't move or speak." Silas commanded.

Matt looked stunned for a moment, then shocked as realisation dawned on him.

"Actually" he muttered, "I can-JEREMY RUN!"

Silas felt a mixture of shock and annoyance course through him. The boy didn't possess any strong enough mental abilities to block his psychic attack like Katherine, he'd been able to read Matt's mind just fine.

"Why can't I get inside your head?" Silas pondered, approaching Matt warily.

Unless...

Silas grabbed his head suddenly, probing viciously, hacking until he found the mastermind buried deep into the boy's mind. He knew it.

"Oh I see why, someone's already in there. Why you watching me traveller? Apoveitsmi!" Silas twisted Matt's head in a sudden motion, breaking his head and letting him fall limp and lifeless to the ground. There, that got rid of him.

A few minutes later, the Hunter- Jeremy, approached Matt's body, looking at the ugly ring he was wearing and breathing out heavily in relief.

"You know, if my friend died, I'd at least pretend to cry. Which leads me to believe he's not really dead? I assume that tacky ring protects him?" Silas emerged from his hiding spot.

Jeremy stood up, deftly grabbing the matchet.

"Too bad you can't find out for sure. Hunter's perk."

Silas laughed. "You see, the problem is that if I can read your mind I at least have use for you. Now, I'm just gonna kill you" Silas shrugged.

"You can try but your abilities don't work on me. You're slower and weaker than a vampire. I, on the other hand, am a Hunter. Plus I work out." Without warning Jeremy threw the matchet at Silas, who reflexively ducked, and charged at him, throwing him against a tree.

Silas was annoyed. No way was this boy going to distract him from getting to Katherine. He shoved Jeremy off him, and threw Matt's lantern at him. Jeremy swung a punch at Silas and hopped onto his back, wrapping an arm around his neck.

_Guess he really _does _work out_, Silas thought begrudged.

He snapped off a branch from a tree and pointed it at his chest. He smiled. This was going to be fun.

"You may be stronger than me, but you're forgetting that I am immortal." Silas gasped out smugly.

He pushed the branch slowly, all the way through his shoulder, out and into Jeremy's. Jeremy cried out in pain and dropped to the floor, holding his shoulder.

Silas picked up the matchet and was about to hit him when the gunshot sounded.

It wasn't until the pain exploded in his chest that he realised that he was the one who had been shot.

Looking up, he saw Katherine wielding a gun. The betrayal he felt was more painful than the gunshot wound, even though he knew she didn't know about his feelings for her.

"Thought you didn't know how to use that thing." Jeremy muttered, relief evident in his voice.

"I figured it out." she replied, then she shot Silas in the head and he collapsed to the floor and blacked out.

After recovering from the shot wounds, Silas was not surprised that the travellers had found him. There were two, the male threatening to gut him, which really made him look pathetic, and the slim, brunette female standing next to him.

What really surprised him was when she killed her male companion with his own knife.

"I know you can see inside my mind. So you know I have my own agenda." She spoke in a thick, foreign accent.

What he saw inside her mind was even more shocking. She was Katherine's daughter, Nadia Petrova.

Things had just gotten a lot easier for him.

Though while calling her the next day, he realised he couldn't trust her. What if she was with the travellers and Gregor-she had called him-was a passenger in Matt's body? So he told her to finish Matt off in the hope he could get rid of Gregor for good.

It hadn't worked out. He was glad he didn't tell Nadia about being in love with her mother because that may not have gone down well, and she wouldn't have believed him anyway-she was just as sceptical as her mother.

Nadia had gotten to Katherine first and had dragged her to her car, where Silas had tracked her with a GPS-he wasn't leaving anything to chance. His heart was doing weird little jumps and his stomach was suddenly full of butterflies. Katherine looked beautiful, no matter what.

He knew she would betray him. The one thing keeping him from killing her was that if Katherine found out, she would hate him.

Somehow that had become the scariest thing in his world.

He was on the verge of compelling her to knock herself out by shooting herself, when a blinding, searing pain shot through his skull. His compulsion released Nadia and she grabbed Katherine and drove off in the car. He had fallen to the ground, clutching at his head, groaning in agony. He knew perfectly well what was happening-Qetsiyah was back-that didn't surprise him since the woman couldn't let anything go-and she had gotten hold of Stefan and was performing a spell on him to leave Silas without his mental abilities.

A shame Stefan would lose his memories in the process.

Suddenly, his eyes burned and trickles of something; blood knowing Qetsiyah, were falling down his face.

That was the last thing he thought of before the world dropped away from his awareness.

When he next woke up in the middle of the road, it was night time and he was in an extremley foul mood. He had lost Katherine again.

Maybe it was the universe's way of telling him she wasn't meant for him.

He called Nadia, wanting to know where Katherine was.

"Silas the betrayer," Nadia purred in greeting, voice dripping with satisfaction.

"Someone lived up to his reputation today."

"Where are you" Silas demanded, seething in anger.

"Wouldn't you like to know." He could practically feel her smirking she was so smug.

"I may not be able to read your mind anymore, but that doesn't mean I won't kill you if you don't keep up your end of the deal."

"Now, whatever twisted fantasy you're playing out with Katherine is your issue, but I won't stop until I get her."

"We'll see." Nadia replied

"It wasn't a question." Silas said, slowly losing his temper.

"As you mentioned earlier, Katherine is still my priority, and since I lost my psychic abilities, that can only mean one thing. My ex-fiancée is alive again, and she's on her way to Mystic Falls."

"Well, maybe you two will get back together." Nadia laughed.

Silas also let out a snort of derisive laughter. That was as likely as he would willingly dessicate for another 2000 years.

"Reconciliation isn't really her thing. She hates me as much as I hate her, and if you think that I don't play fair, wait till you see what she's capable of."

He meant every word. Qetsiyah was not a person you could walk away from without a scar.

Suddenly, there was a slight scuffling sound, as though Nadia's phone was being moved, or she had dropped it.

Then Katherine's voice came on. How he'd yearned to talk to her again, he couldn't breathe, and his heart was doing that weird thumping thing again that it did whenever she was around. Her voice was almost melodic. Amara's was lovely but different; her accent had been Greek, but Bulgarian was much more beautiful he found, especially when it was only a slight touch of it.

"Enough with the games, Silas." Katherine snapped, she sounded tired, tired of running from yet another person and he felt guilty for making her feel like that.

"I know that you kissed me and compelled me to forget and I want to know why." she demanded impatiently.

Silas really couldn't breathe. He was shocked into silence. How did she know? She must have been stronger than he'd thought if she could break his compulsion all by himself. Maybe it was another effect of the cure.

He didn't want to answer, because it would make it too real and he wasn't sure he wanted to hear her response.

So he hung up.

**Thank you for reading again! Sorry this was really long :-)! I may update this soon, I have a good idea of where I want this story to go. Let me know if you have any ideas! I hope you liked it! :-D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! :-)**

**Disclaimer: These characters belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith, so do parts of other storylines in this chapter. This story is mine and I have changed some original tvd scenes.**

**Special thanks to **_**chhavi**_** for giving me the suggestion for the main part of this chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

Silas had left Nadia and Katherine, too chagrined to bother to look for them.

_She knows, she knows!_ His mind kept screaming at him incessantly. How could he ever face her again? With the amount of anger she had held in her tone on the phone, she clearly didn't want to see him. Besides, without his mental abilities, Silas couldn't compel her if he saw her.

When had she remembered? Was it when she had first taken the cure? Over the summer? When he'd tried to kidnap her? All these possibilities kept running through his head as he paced up and down the apartment he'd rented out months before.

He knew Nadia would never dream of killing her, so he knew he may see her again. It was unoptional, he had to see her again.

He drove back down to Mystic Falls, after receiving a call from Damon, who assumed he wanted the cure aka Katherine. He also learned whilst spying on Qetsiyah that there was a party going on near Whitmore College, who was buying a very flashy outfit for the occasion. Whilst looking at her, he couldn't help but think that Katherine would have looked a lot better in it.

He felt guilty, for, in a way, cheating on Amara, he just couldn't help it. It wasn't cheating if you were in love with your dead girlfriend's doppelganger, right?

It didn't matter. Right now he had to focus on helping Katherine; he could figure it out later.

Walking into the bar, he sidled up to Damon.

"So, why did you call me?" Silas asked.

"Same reason you answered. You need help and I'm gonna help you." Damon quipped.

_I doubt it._ Silas thought, resisting rolling his eyes in annoyance. Couldn't he just get to the point?

"What makes you think that I need help?" Silas turned to Damon.

"Well, for starters, you're still here, as in, why do you suck so badly at killing yourself?" Damon smirked

"A mystical anchor binds the Other Side. Qetsiyah, or Tessa, or whatever the hell she's calling herself these days, she wants to protect it. So, she's the only person that knows where the anchor is hidden, but fortunately, she will be at the Whitmore Disco Party this evening."

"Really?"

"Mm." Silas nodded.

"I thought you said you lost all of your psychic powers." Damon said suspiciously.

"Oh, I did, but I still have my incredible powers of observation, and I observed her buying a pink, sparkly dress today." Silas explained.

"So, we have a deal." Damon smiled.

Now here comes the tricky bit. Silas thought. The only way to get close to Katherine, whilst Damon thought he was going after Qetsiyah was too eliminate Stefan.

"Well, we have half a deal. I'm resurrecting some witch with my death, but we have yet to discuss how you're helping me." Silas lied smoothly.

"Well, you've yet to tell me what you want." Damon replied, agitation twisting his features.

"Oh, it's fairly simple, actually. I want you to kill your brother." Silas told him.

Damon blinked and anger crossed his face for a moment.

"When you mean kill him, you mean..."

"Snap his neck? Yep, that would work." Silas grinned. His plan was going perfectly.

"Fine."

The party was on full blast when Silas arrived. The music was booming in his ears. Some of these songs were really overrated and incredibly annoying. He thought he saw Katherine in the middle of it all, dancing and he quirked a smile

He slipped past a group of girls gawking at him and into the corridor to wait for Damon and Stefan. When the moment finally arrived, he snuck behind Stefan, giving Damon the all-clear.

"Hello me." Silas smirked, and had the satisfaction of Stefan spinning around and looking at him, confusion and fear shining in his eyes for a split second before Damon snapped his neck, letting him fall limply to the ground.

Damon's thoughts slammed into Silas as though a ton of bricks had hit him, bitter and guilty, with a hint of smugness.

"So, did it work?" Damon asked dubiously.

Silas shrugged on Stefan's jacket and smiled.

"Yes Damon I can read your mind again. No I'm not lying, and maybe you enjoyed snapping your brother's neck just a little too much." Silas recited from the suspicious thoughts spilling out of Damon's mind.

Damon smiled uneasily. "Sold." he muttered.

"I'll cosy up to the witch and sift through her to find the anchor, whereas you just have to keep him dead." Silas lied; he wasn't after Qetsiyah specifically tonight, after finding a certain brunette on the dance floor. Besides, once Stefan regained his memories, Silas would get back his psychic powers anyway.

Silas weaved his way back into the crowd. He was just getting to the drinks bar out of the winking coloured lights that were bugging his eyes, when Qetsiyah popped up. She nearly made him jump. Where had she come from?

"So, how about that pity drink?" She asked.

"Do you drink tequila?" He asked quickly, playing along.

As they started to drink a few more tequilas and a few more minutes, Silas started to feel light-headed. Alcohol was really strong nowadays.

He started probing her mind, reading the thoughts hidden there.

What he saw shocked him.

_The anchor had escaped. Amara, the anchor disappeared over fifty years ago._

He stumbled back in shock. Amara was still alive? Even worse, she had gotten out fifty years ago. Had she not thought of him during that time? Not gone looking for him? She knew where he had been. The thought stung him, and hatred polluted his body.

He grabbed a nearby bottle of alcohol and chugged it back to dull the immense pain inside of him.

He stumbled through the crowd, ignoring Qetsiyah's confused look.

He heard cheering and went to investigate. To his immense surprise, Katherine and Klaus were up on a nearby table dancing, faces close together, lips nearly touching. What was Klaus doing here? From his expression, he clearly wasn't sure who he was dancing with. Katherine was giggling as she jumped up and down, an empty bottle of liquor grasped in her hand.

The rage disappeared, only to be replaced by a fierce jealousy. Katherine was Silas', not Klaus'. He was very focused on ripping Klaus' heart out.

Suddenly, Katherine slipped and fell. Still giggling, she hopped off the table and stumbled off into the crowd.

"Cheerio Klausy!" She sang out.

"It-it's been fun!" Klaus shouted, also jumping from the table.

Silas took off after him. Grabbing Klaus' jacket, he threw him against a wall.

"What the... Stefan?" Klaus slurred.

Yep he was really drunk. Klaus looked like he could barely walk.

"Nooo, I am much better looking!" Silas declared, getting crosser and then suddenly throwing a punch at Klaus' face.

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused Klaus, holding a hand to his bleeding nose.

"I'll give you a clue, I stuck a stake in your back. Stupid really, shouldn't have believed I could have broken it, but that's what ya get when ya hurt Katherine! Stay away from her, or I will kill you" Silas threatened, his voice slurring. Then he paused, confused. Had he really drunken that much alcohol?

Klaus' eyes widened. "S-silas?" he stuttered.

"Ah, you are smart after all!" Silas grinned, then suddenly thrust his hand through Klaus' chest and yanked out his heart just as brutally.

He knew that wouldn't kill him, but it certainly taught him a lesson.

Wiping his hand with a nearby box of tissues, he walked off in search of Katherine. Stumbling outside, he found her curled over some nearby bushes alone, groaning in pain. He smiled happily, heart doing that weird dance again.

He was going to tell her. Nothing would stop him now.

"Katherine!" he yelled out.

She whipped round, straightening. Her mouth opened in surprise.

"Katherine, I love yooou!" he slurred walking drunkenly toward her.

" are you doing? Are you drunk?" She asked, backing away slightly.

"Only a little." he held his fingers up to show her.

"Why you here?" She asked, curiosity brightening her chocolate eyes.

"Got ridda Klaus." he muttered, lurching towards her.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and was about to kiss her when a splitting migraine hit him. Crying out, he sank to his knees, the pain over whelming him until he dropped to the floor instantly, blackness seeping into his vision. Stefan must be waking up.

_Not again._ Was his last thought before he passed out.

**Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this! Please review :-)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks for the reviews! I may not be updating **_**Love Lost**_** for another week or so because I am busy with this story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this chapter, they belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith but I own this story.**

Searing brightness pierced Silas' eyes as he sat up with a groan. His mouth was dry, and the painful thumping in his head was slowly fading, but he needed some blood. This must be what humans called a hangover.

He realised he was on a soft, cushiony surface and looked down to find he was in the living room of the Boarding House on a sofa. Guess he didn't qualify for a bed in this house. The thought just made him chuckle dryly.

As he stood up in the same, wrinkled clothes from yesterday, the events of last night slammed into his mind; talking with Qetsiyah, attacking Klaus, declaring his love for Katherine to her, Amara alive, being the anchor. He groaned again. Those last memories were the most painful.

He grabbed a blood bag presumably left for him on the floor and drank its contents, the sweet, coppery taste restoring his strength.

"Aah, you're up!" Damon sauntered into the room.

"Now, to the point, what the hell went wrong last night?!" Damon demanded angrily, dropping all pretenses of sarcasm. "When I kill my brother for you, I expect results."

"Oh I don't know, Damon, maybe finding out that Amara is the anchor and that she has spent the last _fifty_ years running around and didn't even bother looking for me, is that good enough?" Silas yelled, making Damon step back, his eyebrows shooting up, his classic smirk dropping from his face.

"What do you mean?" Damon asked, still looking baffled.

"I mean, you can't bring back your witch if Amara is still alive, I'm not going to die if she's not there am I?" Silas kicked the sofa angrily. He felt conflicted; Amara was alive and had abandoned him. He didn't know if he could be with her after that. He loved Katherine, he could help her, he wanted to be with her.

"It didn't seem like that what with you ripping out Klaus' heart over Katherine. Good job by the way, I think the guy peed his pants." Damon grinned, his mood seemingly lightening.

"Shut up." hissed Silas through clenched teeth, fists clenching in anger.

"What, you made your point _really_ clear, you jealous of Klaus or something? She's upstairs, if you want to see her." Damon walked up the stairs with a cup of bourbon, that annoying, self-satisfied smirk still on his face.

Oh God. Silas rubbed his face with his hands, tempted to snap Damon's neck. She couldn't have heard anything, could she?

He heard Damon in the kitchen, clanking around and talking to-was that Katherine? No, judging by her affectionate and annoying tone that was Elena.

He suddenly heard creaking on the stairs. Someone was coming down.

Katherine came into view, wearing leather trousers and a cream blouse, making his heart flip as he looked at her. She was scrolling through her phone, texting someone, whilst holding a hand to her head, grimacing in pain when she froze, seeing him in the living room.

Silas very badly wished he had a change of clothes. And a toothbrush. He gave her a tentative smile, anxious about her reaction.

She blinked, as though not quite sure he was really there, then smiled back hesitantly, making his stomach curl in the process, approaching him slowly until she was standing a few feet away from him.

He was overwhelmed with an irresistible urge to kiss her again, hold her in his arms forever if possible.

"I still don't know why you kissed me." she smirked boldly, a shadow of curiosity lurking in her eyes.

Silas opened his mouth to speak, to explain, but no sound came out. How did you tell someone you were in love with them when it was so obvious they didn't feel the same way?

"Just tell me why, after all I wasn't the one yelling last night for everyone to hear." She said it jokingly enough but her tone was serious. She really wanted to know.

He didn't know how he had found his voice, the courage to speak, but the words just tumbled out of their own accord.

"I love you; why, is that so hard for you to believe?" Silas couldn't believe he had just said that, but couldn't find it in him to regret it.

She shot him a full-on glare, disbelief sharpening her features.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because, I am a replica of your _true love!_" She declared, throwing extra bitterness and anger into the last two words.

She sighed, the animosity draining out of her. "You don't even know me." she whispered.

Silas felt the first stirrings of hope inside him. Was it possible she liked him?

"That had nothing to do with it! I know a lot more than you think." he argued back, desperate to prove himself to her. "She abandoned me fifty years ago! If that's not a reason to hate her then I don't know what is."

"What, so I'm your replacement?" she scoffed; now looking annoyed.

"No, _no_ I found out last night! I have loved you long before that!" Silas breathed out slowly, taking a step towards her.

"You don't look like her to me."

She paused for a second, stunned by his exclamation.

"I'm sorry, I can't believe you." she said, backing away, shutting her face off into an unreadable mask.

"Kather-"

"I don't believe you." she insisted, her face pale and pinched, turning round and reaching for the door.

Silas felt his hope deflate as the only woman he'd ever truly loved ran.

Ran from him.

**Thanks for reading! I hope I got these characters right. :-\ Please review! :-)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for reading! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other stories to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

He registered the door slamming, then a crash in the house that he at first thought was his heart breaking before he realised that someone had dropped a glass. Damon was cursing wildly about his best bourbon, but even then it seemed half-hearted.

No, in fact, every single vampire in this house had just heard him profess his love for Katherine, and the extension of what he would say to make her believe him.

He scrunched up his face in embarrassment and quickly made for the door in a bid to get away from the curious and shell-shocked vampires in the next room, but Damon got there first, zooming in front of him and slamming the door shut, his face a mixture of confusion, anger and shock.

"Thought Amara was your one true love?" Damon asked, a sneer painting his features.

"Trust me Damon, so did I, now move." Silas said annoyed, trying to push past him.

"What, and disappoint my girlfriend by not giving her her best friend back? What do you take me for?" Damon smirked, eyes widening in the perfect picture of innocence.

Silas grew angry. He could have crushed this man if he had his psychic abilities, but he didn't, so in order to get to Katherine, he had to poke at Damon's most sensitive spot. He smiled mischieviously. That would be easy.

"So Damon, when were you actually going to realise that the you didn't notice the most important person in you and Elena's lives was drowning in a safe for three months and she knew something was up? You weren't. It would have been years if I had never come back to town before you realised that your brother never left. And the thing is, you wouldn't care. You didn't worry at all this summer, knowing he should have called. And that, Damon, is what I take you for." Silas smiled with a flourish, a triumphant glee in his tone, and pushed past a very angry and thought-provoked Damon, too distracted and upset by the knowledge that he knew Silas was right to stop him.

He sprinted as fast as he could out the door, running out of the grounds before realising that she had taken a car and would by now be impossible to catch before stopping and running all the way back for Damon's car. He grabbed the keys from the living room table, ignoring Elena, Damon, Caroline and Jeremy's shocked faces before jumping into Damon's car and driving off at full-speed.

It didn't occur to him that she could be anywhere, he just guessed. Stopping off at the Grill, he hurried in, nearly careening into Matt, who was just serving someone at a nearby table.

"Where's Katherine?" he asked, breathless, but a steely edge to his voice. It must have been that which convinced Matt to stutter out "Uh, I-I don't know, maybe, a-at my place with Nadia."

"Not that bad for a busboy." Silas grinned, clapping him on the soldier before zooming back out again.

He drove out of the car park, twisting sharply around corners, nearly crashing the car continuously until he arrived at Tyler's place.

When he saw Katherine's car, his insides twisted with relief. She was here.

He barrelled right through the locked door, not caring about the broken arm he had recieved in the process.

Nadia came storming down the stairs.

"Matt, what the-" she stopped abruptly, seeing him standing in the hallway, her face a mask of shock and disbelief. If the situation wasn't so serious he would be laughing at her expression.

"I know Katherine's here. Let me talk to her." he said stubbornly.

"So you can kill her? No way." Nadia answered, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Too bad." he snapped impatiently, reaching out and snapping her neck before she had time to react. He really wasn't in the mood for idle chit-chat. He stepped over her unconscious body and proceeded up the stairs.

He took the first room on the left; it was a big house and he didn't know where to start.

Turns out he struck lucky.

She was sitting at a table by the window in the large bedroom, staring into a vanity mirror. Doing absolutely nothing.

As soon as she heard the door creaking open she turned around, smiling radiently, making his stomach fill with butterflies again, but then her smile turned into a horrified grimace when she saw Silas, making the butterflies turn into stones, sinking to the bottom of his stomach.

"_What_, are you doing here?" she asked, a seething mass of fury.

"I need to know why you can't believe me." he said with a finality, a tone leaving no room for escape again.

"I'll leave once you tell me, I just have to know." his voice broke on the last word.

Her eyes softened. She slowly stood up and walked towards him. Very gingerly, she placed both her hands on his face. His heart was thumping out of control and he felt the electricity again, from where her skin touched his.

"I can't believe you because I have been loathed and detested for five hundred years. They think I don't care. The truth is I've never been truly loved. Elijah loved the human girl I was before I died, someone I couldn't ever be again and someone he still thinks I am. Damon was fascinated with me, more obsessed really, and Stefan, he loved me, but not enough, and his love easily turned into hate, so _excuse me_, if I'm a little sceptical that the most powerful supernatural being in the world claims he loves me." she said, taking her hands away from his face, eyes flaring up in anger. He instantly missed the contact of her hands on him. The enormity of her speech sunk into him. How could anyone not love this woman? Not become infatuated with her and love her forever? She was completely unforgettable.

"Do you think you should be loved?" he asked, stroking her curls, tucking her hair behind her hears.

Surprise flickered across her face before she answered instantly.

"No, of course not. I ruin _everything_ for everyone. My family's death was my fault. I don't deserve to be loved." she choked out, tears spilling down her face.

Seeing her so distressed was upsetting him too. He couldn't stand it. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried into his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head. He held her until her sobs subsided and her body stopped wracking with sobs. He briefly wondered why Nadia hadn't come in, she must have woken up by now, but he was then distracted by Katherine lifting her face from his chest, which was smeared with mascara tracking down her face. She looked so vulnerable and fragile.

He felt he could see through her eyes into the inner depths of her soul, to the person she was once, long ago.

She looked apologetic suddenly, before seeming to realise what she'd done. She pushed away from him, still sniffing, before grabbing a tissue and rubbing at her face with it. He realised he was still holding her and quickly stepped away, dropping his arms to his sides.

_This is awkward_ Silas thought, though it was one of the best days of his life. He never thought he would be able to talk to Katherine, let alone hug her. He felt giddy and light; nothing mattered anymore but that moment.

"Um, well, you said, you would leave after I... told you, you know." she motioned to the door, the emotion he had seen in her eyes fading.

"Yeah, uh, see you." Silas smiled, reaching for the door. He couldn't stop thinking about the past few minutes. It had felt like heaven the entire time. Like he was on cloud nine.

Nadia was gone by the time he got down the stairs. Relief filled him; he didn't want to explain himself to her.

He knew-not yet-but one day, she would come to love him. He was sure of it.

He couldn't wait until then.

Even if it took a lifetime.

**Thank you for reading! I really hope you liked this! I decided I needed more Kilas interaction; please let me know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks for reading! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other stories belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

Silas could not stop thinking about it. He really couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Katherine hugging him, talking to him.

Which was why he really couldn't care less when he walked around the Boarding House, a big grin plastered on his face, everyone living there stared at him as though he had grown another head. He found it quite amusing.

He walked into the kitchen the next day after bagging himself a room for the night, her image still stuck in his mind on replay. He would never get sick of it. A variation of sound filled his ears, which he then realised after snapping out of his reverie were voices. He turned around to see Elena, Damon and Jeremy seated at the table in the centre of the room unmoving, still staring, still annoying.

Their conversation had ceased the moment he entered the room, which probably meant that their conversation was about him, or was some sort of plan to get the witch back that they didn't want him to know about.

It was getting rather tiresome. And boring. And when Silas got bored, he started killing people. He had no problem starting with them.

Forcing a smile onto his face, Silas walked up to the table, just opposite of the others and sat down.

"I'm getting annoyed with all you're staring. It's not like you haven't seen this _ridiculously_ handsome face before." he smirked.

Damon blinked, looking confused and slightly angry and leaned forward.

"Then go."

"Believe me, I would if I could, but without my mental abilities, I can't compel myself somewhere to stay, or any blood to drink. So you're stuck with me." Silas took a blood bag from the freezer and opened it, the sudden, quiet pop from doing so sounding surprisingly loud in the silent, sullen atmosphere in the room.

Damon leaned back, frowning, whilst Elena tapped her hand against the table impatiently, looking at the older Salvatore, whilst Jeremy glared at Silas defiantly.

"So move in with Katherine." Damon grinned, exposing his teeth. "Don't you fancy her, or did she kick you out one time too many?" he was clearly enjoying himself, having gotten the upper hand. Silas gritted his teeth. He had no comeback for that. She had kicked him out, but not in a way that made him feel particularly unwelcome to visit again.

Then inspiration hit him.

"There's extra space here now that Stefan's gone. Strange. Without his memories he doesn't seem to be so forgiving of what you two are doing. Speaking of, Damon, did you tell Elena what we did to Stefan?" Silas raised his eyebrows in mock horror. He mentally congratulated himself on his mini speech as he saw Elena's reaction.

Her eyes had widened as large as saucers. Her mouth opened, and Silas could tell Damon was in for it. This was going to be hilarious.

"Tell me what?" she demanded impatiently.

Damon shifted uneasily in his seat, avoiding Elena's furious glare.

"Silas needed his psychic juju to get into Tessa's head and the only way to temporarily reactivate his abilities was to break Stefan's neck..."

Damon hesitated, guilt written all over his face.

"A couple times."

"As if he didn't hate us enough. Damon, oh, God. I'm going over there." Elena stood up abruptly, knocking her chair over.

_She really is an idiot_. Silas thought. She looked like Amara, going to see someone who hated her looks really wasn't going to help.

Silas nodded enthusiastically "You should, really. Tessa's bad business." he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No. Just let Stefan have his space. It's like you said, he's already mad enough." Damon argued, standing in front of Elena, barring her from leaving.

"Sounds like he's more mad at you. Maybe he and I can find some common ground." Elena snapped. She shoved Damon away angrily and strode for the front door. Damon winced as she slammed it.

Yep, that really had been hilarious.

"Oh dear, is the perfect couple having problems? Are they having trouble in paradise?" Silas asked in a childish tone, cocking his head to the side.

Jeremy looked away from the door Elena had disappeared through. He sighed, looking annoyed.

"You're a dick." he stated, glaring at Silas menacingly.

"Oh I know, it's part of the charm." Silas grinned proudly, getting up and walking out of the kitchen, the blood bag still in his hands.

_If only every morning started like this._ He thought, still grinning.

He was just heading upstairs to his room, thoughts once again lingering on Katherine and the events of yesterday, her electric touch, the smell of her hair, her eyes sparkling with tears when suddenly he could hear Damon in his head. The feeling so familiar, however one he realised he had gotten adjusted to without. Damon's thoughts slammed into his mind, all focused on Elena hoping she was safe, worry and guilt for Stefan that he wouldn't ever admit, even concern for Bonnie was in there, all mushed up together in a swirl like a pool of pink taffy.

He could read minds again. And that could only mean one thing.

Stefan had his memories back.

**Thank you for reading! Sorry about the lack of Kilas-next chapter will focus more on Kilas I promise! Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks for reading! All the reviews have been amazing, I can't believe I have 60 already! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other storylines belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

Once Silas had recovered from the mini-shock of regaining his abilities, he headed down into the living room to tell Damon about the fate of his brother. He felt a slight twinge of pity for Stefan. He had walked away with a scar from the evil witch, with the burden of his memories. He must have really ticked Qetsiyah off since she seemed to have taken a liking to Amnesia Stefan.

Strutting into the living room, he approached Damon, who raised his eyebrows warily, clenching his beloved glass of bourbon tightly in his hand. He had just shrugged on a jacket, and seemed to be about to leave, presumably to find Elena.

"Don't bother, she's fine. Stefan, though, not doing so good." Silas smiled, enjoying Damon's reaction. From his mind came flickers of worry and anger.

"What are you on about? What's happened to Stefan?" Damon demanded, storming up to Silas.

"Oh, he's perfect physically. Maybe not mentally though." Silas continued, still smiling, knowing full well it was irritating Damon.

Damon's features showed a mixture of horror and shock.

"He's got his memories back? But that means..." Damon's eyes widened.

Silas' smirk only widened with it. This really was a great day.

Damon ran out the front door, jumping into his car, and driving off with a loud screech, desperate to find him. Silas knew he was too late. Stefan most likely had ran from Qetsiyah, with the turmoil of his memories, probably his recent summer 'vacation'. Besides, she was pretty scary in a revenge mood.

Silas sighed, looking around the room. He was bored now, he couldn't read Jeremy's mind, so the fun was over. Maybe he could visit Matt, find out if Gregor was still inhabiting him.

When he arrived, he was shocked to see Katherine, looking slightly disheveled, but beautiful all the same sitting at the bar talking to Matt. Matt looked both irritated and amused as she yelled at him. His heart doing flips again, he approached her.

"How about now? Matty Blue-Blue, I want another drink." Katherine slurred, waving her empty glass in the air.

"No! You're drunk and scaring the customers." Matt was trying not to laugh.

Katherine turned to the people sitting next to her and grinned, waggling her fingers at them in a drunken wave. Silas too buried the urge to laugh at her drunken antics.

"You realize that every single time you say no, it just makes you hotter, right?" she grinned.

Silas suddenly wished Katherine was telling him that. He stepped up to the bar next to her. Matt sighed in relief when he saw someone else taking Katherine off his hands and started looking at his phone, frowning.

"Heeey, Silas!" Katherine crowed, beaming when she saw him, throwing her arms around his shoulders in a sort of half-hug.. His heart fluttered with joy.

"Or are you Stefan?" she pointed at him, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

He pursed his lips. "Silas." he nodded.

"Oh." she smirked, then turned her attention to Matt, who was ignoring their exchange, his full attention on his phone. Entering his mind, Silas saw Matt's confusion over the video he had recorded on his phone. The man in Matt's body spoke in a foriegn accent. Gregor was still present.

"What are you watching, some Czech reality show?" asked Katherine, annoyance and curiosity flaring on her face. Silas was stunned. How did she know about Czech? He didn't bother trying to read her mind; he'd learnt he wouldn't get anywhere.

Matt voiced his thoughts.

"How'd you know it was Czech?" he asked, putting down his phone on the bar.

Katherine seemed to sober. "Eye contact. We're getting started."

"Let me see the video." Silas said, picking it up. Katherine leaned over his shoulder to watch it.

"Okay. What the hell am we looking at here?" Katherine asked, frowning.

"So, over the summer, I went to Prague, met a girl. She followed me back here. Then, her boyfriend put some kind of spirit thing in my head. Then you" he started, pointing at Silas. "killed me, so I'm guessing that had something to do with this?"

"Pretty much. This is bad." Silas muttered, tapping the phone. It was a lot worse than he anticipated. This was more than just trying to survive in another's body.

"Oh yeah, it is." Katherine was chewing her lip nervously. Silas frowned. She knew more than he originally thought.

"Why?"

They both looked down at the screen as the man inside Matt said to the camera _"Someday, my friends will come looking for this blade. Protect it at all costs." _

Putting the phone down, Silas tapped on Katherine's glass and grabbed another so Matt poured some alcohol into them, to which he obliged, clearly desperate for answers.

"Some guy named Kristof, he, um... he activated you." Katherine started.

"What do you mean activated me?" Matt was confused.

"He's a Traveller." Silas interjected, feeling almost sorry for Matt. The travellers weren't a very peaceful people.

"Travellers are a faction of witches. They're big on spirit possession. You've got one inside of you. It's kind of like a human parasite that's hitching a ride in your brain."

"So how the hell do I get it out of me?" Worry lines were appearing on Matt's forehead.

"That girl, the one that followed you back from Prague, was she, um, I don't know, feisty, a little accent, ridiculously beautiful?" Katherine avoided the question. Silas noticed she looked a little nervous.

Matt smiled fondly, as though remembering a pleasant memory. Silas quickly withdrew contact from his mind, seeing where his train of thought was headed.

"Pretty much, yeah. Her name was Nadia."

Katherine frowned, deep in thought.

"What? You know her?" Matt leaned forward, curious.

"You could say that." Silas muttered, trying and failing to hide his smile miserably. Katherine elbowed him and cleared her throat loudly. The slight contact got his heart racing.

Matt looked at them, not curiously, a gaze that said _oh I see it now_, before cleaning the bar vigorously, avoiding eye contact when Katherine glared at him. Silas attacked his mind again, intrigued as to why he was doing that. A conversation from a few days ago caught his eye as he skimmed through Matt's memories.

_Damon burst into the bar. He walked up to the bar, where Matt was serving drinks._

_"Where's Silas?" he asked._

_"Just went to find Katherine I think, if that was him. I couldn't tell. He nearly ran me over and then took off again." Matt said, confused. Why would Damon be looking for him?_

_"Yeah sounds like him."_

_"Wait, why does he even want Katherine?"_

_Damon threw his arms up, exasperated. "He fancies himself in love with her. He doesn't know what he's letting himself in for. I can't wait for him to find out." He smiled maliciously. Damon turned around and marched back out, swinging open the door violently, leaving behind a stunned busboy._

Silas pulled away from Matt's mind. If he had hated Damon before, that was nothing compared to now. Everything was bathed in an angry, red glow. He saw red. Damon thought he _fancied_ himself in love with Katherine? Damon didn't know as much as he believed. Didn't he love the same face? Looks weren't everything, but Damon wouldn't have said that if he was truly in love with someone who looked exactly like Katherine.

Speaking of whom, she had just snatched away a bottle from the bar, giggling and made off with it, heading towards a table towards the other side of the room. He began to follow her, but froze when he saw who she was talking to.

Stefan.

He didn't look so good. He was slumped in his chair, looking tired and weary from the strain of his memories suddenly piling on him all at once. He felt sympathy for Stefan. Although he had put him in the safe, maybe he should have regarded the situation more carefully. Stefan's mental state had never been completly stable to begin with, killing all those people had taken a toll on him. Silas wasn't going to apologise, not when he had had it rough for two thousand years, but maybe he could help his shadow self. If Stefan would let him.

Standing up, he approached Stefan's table where Katherine had just sat down.

"Hey stranger! Lookie what I stole." she announced, plonking the bottle down on the table.

"Knock yourself out." Stefan said watching her pour herself a shot and toss it back.

"Don't get drunk without me." Silas smirked, sitting down next to Katherine and taking a sip out of the bottle.

Stefan's eyes widened with fear and anger when he saw him. He jerked up suddenly, as though electrocuted and stood up to leave. Katherine grabbed his hand, causing a surge of jealousy to flow through Silas.

"Hey! Come on! Please. Just have one drink with me? Please. Stefan, I've had a bad..." she hesitated "year, really. Silas is on his best behaviour, promise."

Silas just nodded solemnly. Stefan sighed and sat down, warily glancing at Silas at the corner of his eye.

"One pity drink." He agreed

Katherine clapped her hands together excitedly and poured herself and him another shot. Silas couldn't imagine anything more beautiful.

"What is wrong with you?" Stefan asked her bluntly, still giving Silas the evils.

Silas was getting annoyed. His shadow self was showing them up. Why was he so rude to her?

"Other than the joint pain, the receding gums, and the fact that I have to pee every five minutes, I'm dandy." she shrugged, clearly used to insults.

"But hey! Enough about me. Why are you all by your lonesome?"

"So I could avoid talking to anyone, particularly him." he nodded at Silas.

Silas was affronted. "I can be fun! And totally, non-scary." he argued

Katherine laughed at them wildly, chin in hand "Well, if you did want to talk to someone, I'm right here. And, uhh, let's be honest, I'm wasted, so I'm not going to remember." she tossed back another shot, coughing slightly.

"Well, ever since I got my memories back, I can't stop thinking about the safe. One minute I'm fine, the next minute I feel like I'm dying all over again."

"Aah." This was something Silas could relate to. He leaned forward, making Stefan edge away slightly.

"Classic PTSD." He grimaced; two thousand years alone and hungry had left its mark.

"You survived a pretty traumatic event, and now you're back, and you've got nothing but free time to just relive that terrible experience in the safe. Well, allow me to give your life purpose. Help me with one little favor?" Katherine pleaded, pouting.

"Should've known this was gonna come around to you needing something from me." Stefan said, lip curling slightly in disgust.

Silas jumped up in anger, ready to rip Stefan's throat out for that comment. Stefan shot out of his seat like a bullet from a gun, looking terrified.

"Hey, he didn't mean anything by it okay?" Katherine assured, pulling him back into his chair. His skin tingled from her touch and he smiled softly at her. She turned to Stefan, who was looking at Silas with a confused expression.

"I'm just trying to help. What would I know about post-traumatic stress? I only had my new-born ripped from my arms by my judgmental father. Then, I had to run 500 years after my entire family had been slaughtered by a psychopath, but hey! That didn't have any lingering side-effects." she rolled her eyes.

"Okay. Okay. Alright. What do you need?" Stefan sighed.

"I thought you never wanted to see me again? Why did you call me?" Nadia walked up to the table, eyes flashing in annoyance.

"Stefan, I'd like you to meet Nadia Petrova, my daughter." Katherine stood up, gesturing towards Nadia.

Stefan's eyebrows shot up in shock. Nadia was looking back and forth between Silas and Stefan, looking horrified, he could literally see the pieces coming together in her head.

Katherine turned to her. "I want you to help Matt." she began.

They asked Matt to get the traveller knife and meet them in the storeroom, ignoring his questions and bewildered looks.

"Just out of morbid curiosity." Stefan said to the two women, standing behind Matt.

"Which one of you is younger?"

"I am." Katherine said immediately, causing Silas to smile at the irony.

"Right." Stefan nodded.

Matt entered the room, carrying in the knife.

"Okay. So here's the knife the Traveller left behind with me. Now, what are we doing in here?" asked Matt.

"Take a seat, Matt." Katherine said in a surprisingly gentle tone, taking the knife from him and then giving it to Silas, throwing him a smile that made his stomach dance and his body thrum with joy. He wanted her so badly.

Matt sat down. Katherine moved toward Nadia, giving her a pointed look."

"No, I'm not helping you. You can't make me." Nadia stubbornly stood her ground.

Silas rolled his eyes. If she wouldn't do it, then he would.

"This is ridiculous." he grabbed Matt's face.

"Vyjde." Matt's eyes turned black, and then became their normal baby-blue eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Stefan asked, frowning.

"He's calling on Matt's passenger." Katherine muttered. Nadia looked livid.

Gregor looked around, then jumped out of the chair at Silas, only to be stopped by Stefan grabbing his arms, forcing him down.

"Easy, easy."

"What am I doing here?" he snarled.

"It's okay, sweetheart." Nadia assured.

"Hello, Gregor. I'm Nadia's mother. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Katherine smiled sarcastically.

"What do you want?" Gregor sneered.

"Here's the thing. Nadia is my only child. So naturally, I'm suspicious of anyone who wants to date her. Why don't you tell us the real reason why you're in Mystic Falls?" she demanded.

"To track and kill _him_." Gregor jerked his chin at Silas. That didn't surprise him.

"Hmmm. So, it has absolutely nothing to do with this?" Silas raised the blade.

"How did you get that?" Gregor struggled harder against Stefan's stronghold.

"I would much rather be getting drunk right now, so why don't you stop wasting our time, and tell us what you're doing here." Stefan snapped. Silas looked at him in alarm. He seemed to be losing his grip on reality, he had gone very pale, and his breathing had increased.

He pointed the knife at Matt's throat.

"Fine. After Silas was dead, I was meant to kill her."

"I didn't see that one coming." Katherine's tone was shocked. Silas wasn't. After all this time, they were still after the doppelgänger blood.

"You were using me to get to her? Why? Why would you kill her?" Nadia's voice reflected hurt, her face twisted in betrayal.

"That's what the Travellers want. I don't question my orders." Gregor bared his teeth.

"See why I don't want you dating my daughter? Because Travellers are ruthless, manipulative, hypocrites. I know," she turned to Nadia.

"Because your grandfather was one."

Katherine took the blade from Silas' grip and stabbed Gregor suddenly, in the stomach. As he slumped down into the chair, lifeless, a shocked Nadia hurried toward him. Well, that answered the question of how she knew travellers. She was one.

"What did you just do?" Stefan stepped toward Matt, worried.

"Give it a rest. Matt will be fine. Gregor, on the other hand, not so much. She just expelled his spirit." Silas explained.

"There's a reason why he wanted this knife so badly. It's the only thing that will truly kill a passenger. It's amazing. I didn't think there were any left." Silas studied the blade, twisting it around, whilst Nadia glared at her mother, tears in her eyes.

Katherine looked rather upset too, at the thought of hurting her child. And that was in turn making Silas upset. He stepped toward her to console her, but she shook her head and left the room.

Silas sighed. At this rate, he didn't think she would ever love him.

The thought hurt more than desiccating itself.

**Thanks for reading! Please review! :-)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks for reading! **

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other storylines belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

When Silas woke up at the Boarding House, the first thing he heard was a lot of crashing coming from downstairs. Stefan must still be having... issues. After showering and changing, he went to investigate and found Katherine sitting down on a couch in the living room, ripping out pages from a book whilst Stefan paced rapidly in front of her, looking as though he was about to pass out. He stopped as soon as he saw Silas in the doorway, glaring at him. It really didn't bother Silas, it was like looking in a mirror.

"What kind of sentimental idiot writes down everything they feel? Is this what the prophecy meant when it said that all the doppelgängers were drawn together like magnets? Because if it is, I want my money back." Katherine was complaining.

"I'm just trying to make sure you don't slit your wrists." he told her. Silas raised his eyebrows in surprise. What exactly had happened last night when he left?

"Well, this whole neurotic granny vibe doesn't exactly make me want to live. Do you really have nothing better to do than stand there all day and watch me write in cursive?" Katherine shot back, rolling her eyes.

"I'm trying to make sure you don't kill yourself." he repeated.

"And how are you going to do that?" Silas jumped in.

"You know, since you're still having your little panic attacks?" he smirked. He couldn't resist; three months was nothing, two thousand years was an eternity. Katherine shot him a warning look.

"I'm fine. No thanks to you." the raspy tone in Stefan's voice suggested otherwise as he glared at Silas again.

_If looks could kill._ He laughed silently.

"Yeah. Of course. You are the picture of mental health, Stefan, after being locked for three months in a safe, at the bottom of a quarry." Katherine leaned forward. Silas caught the undercurrent of worry in her voice and felt instantly jealous that her attention wasn't on him.

"I am dealing with it."

"Oh, I know. I heard you 'dealing' with it earlier today in the library." Silas smiled, using his fingers as quotation marks to emphasise his point.

"It sounded like you freaked out and broke a chair, maybe even two. How are you supposed to help her stay alive if you can't even help yourself?" Silas leaned on the doorway.

"Why do you even care? You were the one who started all this." Stefan accused, turning around to him.

"Because I know what you're going through. Being desiccated for two thousand years all alone is no picnic. And maybe, I didn't realise you'd take it harder than I had. I assumed you were like me in personality aswell as looks." Silas explained. As soon as he said it, he realised it was the truth. He hadn't anticipated this.

"Your PTSD also means I can't work with you if you can't give me one hundred percent." Katherine added.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Silas and Stefan turned to Katherine who shifted in her seat.

"And so, I may have called for backup."

Stefan walked up to the door and opened it, Silas and Katherine in tow. Caroline stood there, beaming at him.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked.

"I'm your sober sponsor, and I heard that you needed help." Caroline twisted her hands together, still grinning. Silas didn't think he'd ever met anyone so positive in his life.

"Really?" Stefan sounded dubious.

"And I got my Mom to drop off something for us to use." Caroline became serious then, stepping aside to reveal the Pierce & Franklin safe that Stefan had been locked in. Stefan stared at it, as though not quite believing it was really there. He started shaking.

"Don't worry. I sanitized it." Caroline assured him, smiling again.

Stefan looked at Silas, then back again at the safe. He looked horrified. Silas felt a stab of sympathy for him, but forced himself to keep his face passive.

"Now, help me drag it in." Caroline tugged at the safe. Stefan sighed and helped her push it through the door.

Caroline stood up when they finished, brushing her hands together. She saw Silas and her mouth opened, her eyebrows arching in surprise. She was the perfect picture of astonishment.

"What's he doing here?" she snapped.

Stefan shrugged. Katherine looked at the floor. She knew. It was for her.

"Well, I assume the same reason you're here." Silas smiled. She was another victim to his hallucinations, so would be tougher to convince.

Caroline just stared for a moment. He could see her mind struggling to adjust to seeing two versions of her best friend.

Katherine stepped forward, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, let's just get on with this shall we?"

Stefan finally spoke up.

"I spent 3 months drowning in this thing. What the hell were you two thinking?" he said angrily, crossing his arms.

"I was thinking it's time for you to deal with the source of your PTSD." Caroline shot back.

"And you're sure you're not just sublimating your feelings about what happened to Jesse last night?" Stefan asked, still gazing at the safe.

Caroline turned away from him, clearly stung.

"Feelings? What feelings would I have about my best friend killing the guy I was crushing on?" she muttered.

"He was out of control, and Elena did what she had to do." Stefan defended his brother and ex-girlfriend.

"No. Elena did what she _thought_ she had to do just like she also _thought_ " she turned to face Stefan "that Damon was good boyfriend material. Now you see where I'm going with this?"

Stefan swiftly tried to change the topic. Silas noticed his thoughts were becoming frantic and frustrated.

"Anyways, aren't you a drama major? What do you know about PTSD?"

Caroline smiled softly "Well, I know that you tried to deal with it your own way and you failed, so now..." she opened the safe with a loud, creaking sound. "we're gonna try it my way."

Stefan stared at the safe, then his gaze flitted to Silas.

"Fine, but make sure _he's _not anywhere near me."

Silas glanced at Katherine and took a step back. Stefan breathed out slowly, then ever so slowly inched his way into the safe, and lay down, all the while watching Silas warily. Caroline closed the door and twisted the lock tightly. Silas didn't know why they were bothering. Making him flashback and face his fears wasn't going to work on him. Whilst studying Stefan's mind, he found that everytime Stefan thought about Damon and Elena, he would subconciously rivert to thinking about his time in the safe to avoid the emotional pain. It was the perfect distraction. He was dragged out of his thoughts by Stefan pounding on the safe and yelling, in a choked and panicked voice.

"Caroline! Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Yes. Well, it's in my textbook." she didn't sound so sure.

Caroline stood near the safe, flipping through the pages of her textbook. "Let me find it."

Katherine was watching her with crossed arms, a mischievous expression on her face. Silas smirked. He so loved that look.

"Have you two ever, um, you know?" she started pacing towards her.

"No, I don't." Caroline was confused.

Silas was curious as to what his doppelgänger had been up to. Caroline seemed good for him, they made a good couple, despite the doppelgänger prophecy stating that they were impossible. So he joined in.

"I've been locked up for most of my life and even I know what she's talking about." Silas added, eliciting a warm, heart-fluttering causing smile from Katherine.

"You know." Katherine grinned.

"Oh, my god! You guys, seriously?" scoffed Caroline, turning her head up in disbelief.

"That wasn't exactly a yes or a no." Silas grinned at Katherine's cheeky statement. Oh, he loved her all right.

"We are friends." she said adamently. Silas searched her mind. She was lying. She wanted Stefan almost as much as he wanted Katherine. He ducked his head, smiling. They balanced each other well, and helped each other, the perfect match.

"Your loss. He's great in bed." Katherine inclined her head, smiling fondly.

The conversation had just gotten very uncomfortable. Silas fixated his gaze on the safe.

"Oh, God. I am so not listening to this." Caroline abruptly looked back at her textbook, then suddenly pointed to something on the page.

"Here! Okay, Stefan. Prolonged Exposure Therapy. In vivo exposure gradually introduces elements of prior trauma, e.g. physical objects, comma, certain aspects of duress-"

She was cut off by Stefan's panting and thumping in the safe. Silas was growing more annoyed. This wasn't helping Stefan. Katherine seemed to agree with him.

"Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it, got it, got it. Stop talking. The words that are coming out of your mouth are giving me a headache." Katherine sneered rudely. Silas was trying hard not to laugh as the girls both launched into a heated argument.

"Caroline! Caroline!" Stefan yelled, pounding the safe.

"I'm just trying to help Stefan understand what I'm doing." Caroline argued.

"Hey don't worry Stefan, they're just battling it out!" laughed Silas. He was really enjoying the show.

"Acting like a school teacher isn't going to make him feel any better." Katherine snapped.

"I can't breathe. I can't-" Stefan's breathing slowed. He had passed out.

"You are right about one thing. He needs to get over the root of his problem." Katherine admitted. "'Cause right now the score is safe-one, Stefan-zero. So how do you help the guy that always comes to the rescue? Stefan's the hero. That's who he is at his core. He can't always come through for himself, but he can always come through for everyone else." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled at Caroline and Silas.

"I've got an idea."

"Put me in the safe with him." she said, eyes brightening as though locking yourself in a safe with an uncontrollable and unstable vampire was a great idea. It made Silas livid that she would think to put herself in danger like that.

"Are you insane? He could kill you!" Silas marched toward her and grabbed her arm, incredulous.

"Think this through." he whispered urgently. He didn't know what he would do if she died or got injured. He just wanted to protect her.

"I _have._" she tore her arm from his grip, annoyed.

"I'll be fine. I don't need protection."

She snapped. Silas sighed and stepped away, walking towards the safe until he was directly in front of it. He wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Caroline stared at him. "Okay, what is going on between you two?" she blurted out. Silas raised his eyebrows in surprise. Was it that obvious he loved her?

Katherine glared at her, then unlocked and swung open the safe door and hopped in, slamming it shut. A ringing sound echoed throughout the room, filling the tense silence that followed. Caroline locked the safe again and looked over at Silas.

"Seriously. I know Elena said you-" she stopped when Silas shot her a warning glare. Great, now Elena was blabbing. Just what he needed.

The awkward silence was broken when Katherine started speaking. Stefan must have woken up.

"So, try not to be mad at me."

Stefan groaned.

"I got in here when you were unconscious, and then Caroline and Silas locked us inside. It was the only way."

"Let me out of here! Caroline!" Stefan yelled, hitting the safe roof.

"I know it's a little extreme, but the baby steps approach wasn't working." Caroline said looking guilty.

"See? That's why I need you not to get mad at me because when you get mad, you get anxious and violent and you rip people's heads off, but I'm gonna help you fix that." Katherine spoke in a positive tone.

"Caroline, get me out of here before I hurt her!" Stefan cried frantically.

"That's the whole point, Stefan. You need to get over your PSTD triggers, okay? Or else you will kill me." Katherine said. Silas stood poised over the safe, ready to rip the door off if necessary.

Stefan breathed heavily "You're risking your life." He rasped.

"You're the one who wants to keep me alive. It's my turn to help you now."

"I can't be in here. Please." he begged.

"You're Stefan Salvatore. Suck it up."

"No, no, no." he muttered in an anxious daze.

"I feel-I feel-I feel like I'm dying." "So I'm using this time to think." Katherine continued casually.

"I think there is actually a little bit of truth to this doppelgänger prophecy. I think you're still in love with Elena. I think you're miserable over the fact that she chose Damon over you and that you wanna get out of this one-horse town and as far away from their happiness as possible, and yet somehow, you keep finding excuses to stay in Mystic Falls. I think I'm just that latest excuse." Sikas was stunned. she was better than he had thought with PTSD. Suddenly Katherine made a choking noise. Stefan had grabbed her neck. Silas leaped forward and grabbed the safe door, but Caroline threw him off. He growled at her, but didn't move to the safe again. Stefan wouldn't have forgiven himself if he killed her. "She'll be fine." she said, giving him an oddly sympathetic look.

"Good. Yeah. Get it all out, Stefan. I think this is healthy..." "Although, don't forget you loved me before you hated me." Katherine choked out. Silas' fury was mounting. This had been a terrible idea. He should have compelled her to stay away. Stefan could still kill her.

"Any reason why you chose to have this conversation with me locked in a safe?" Stefan snarled.

"Yes! So that I can show you that the safe isn't the problem." Katherine snapped, still making choking noises.

"How could you say that to me?" he breathed, shocked.

"The problem is you're not facing you're real _issues_. The death you felt in the safe, the pain of dying over and over again? It's easier for you to focus on the physical pain than the emotional heartbreak of Elena leaving you. Your problem is you're not in touch with the reality of the moment, so let's bring you back to the present, shall we? In this moment, are you going to feed on me or are you gonna save my life?" she whispered.

Silas had never been so scared in his life. Stefan seemed to have let Katherine go, her breathing had improved, but he could suddenly attack her again. Caroline's gaze was piercing through him, trying to figure him out.

"Fight it, Stefan, fight it! I'm here. I'm here. I'm with you. We're together." Her voice got quieter, enraging Silas. What were they doing? Unable to bear the thought of Stefan touching her, he impatiently opened the safe. Katherine looked up, squinting and Stefan shied away from the light. Breathing out in relief, Silas extended a hand to her, and hauled her up. Caroline was hugging Stefan tightly.

"See? You made it out alive!" she was exclaiming, the radient smile painted on her face again.

Silas just smiled and edged away, sensing Stefan was still uneasy around him. He still looked pale and on the verge of fainting again, although his mind was more calm and relaxed.

Occupying himself, he walked into the library and he started picking up the broken pieces of the chair Stefan had destroyed, mulling over how soft he had become. He never would have considered helping Stefan a few months ago. Standing up, he saw Katherine leaning on the doorframe, arms crossed, smiling. His chest tightened in exitement and his body buzzed with a desperate yearning to kiss her.

"I think he only broke one chair after all." he laughed.

She still didn't say anything, still staring at him.

"Well, you were right. To get in the safe with him." he admitted, trying to engage her in conversation.

She smirked playfully. "So you admit it. I _do_ know what I'm doing." she picked up a broken chair leg.

"To be honest with you, I never know exactly what you're doing, Katherine." his impulse to kiss her increased.

"Well, Silas, sometimes... I don't either." she handed him the chair leg, which he threw across the room to the messy pile of the rest of the broken chair, not wanting to move away from her. There was a long silence, and Katherine was still standing in front of him. She hesitated, face twisting slightly as though internally struggling with something, but moved even closer to Silas. His breathing quickened in excitement. They were only inches apart. He could feel her body heat. He focused on her lips, just as her gaze flickered to his.

"Like right now..." she slowly reached out and started to caress his chest. He couldn't believe this was happening. His skin was tingling where she was touching it.

"For example." she breathed out.

Silas glanced at his chest and then back at her. They stared at each other as Katherine slowly moved even closer to him, stopping to make sure Silas wouldn't push her away.

He would never let that happen. He slowly started to drift closer to her, body thrumming in anticipation and an even more stronger yearning to kiss her. Katherine leaned in and met his lips with hers in a gentle, yet unsure kiss. His lips buzzed with electricity, just like the last time. Perfect. After a moment, she pulled away and stared at him questioningly. Immediately, Silas brought his hand up to her face and kissed her more firmly, trying to wash away all her doubts. It was like a dream come true. He had waited so long for this. The day she would want him. He eagerly kissed her more deeply, which she responded to just as enthusiastically. He tugged at her top, throwing it over her head, just as she ripped his down the front, before continuing their passionate make-out. He couldn't get enough of her. He scooped her up, still kissing her, her legs wrapped round his waist and carried her towards his bedroom, where he proceeded to make the rest of his dreams come true and an unforgettable night for the both of them.

**Thank you for reading! I really hope you liked it! I apologise if you wanted more M, I just can't write and don't write smut much. Please let me know what you think! :-)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks for reading! **

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other storylines belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine. This chapter has references and similarities to 4x08 in them.**

**This chapter is going to be from Katherine's pov.**

_Where am I?_ was the first thought that entered Katherine's head when she woke up. Taking in a quick inventory, she found she was entangled in nothing but sheets and her clothes were strewn all over the floor. She didn't recognise the room she was in, but she hadn't left the Boarding House the night before, so it must be one of the spare bedrooms. Turning around slowly, she saw next to her Silas, sleeping peacefully, oblivious to the world. She went tingly when looking at him, completly undressed in front of her apart from a few sheets. She sub-conciously smiled, the memories of last night coming back to her. He _was _great. Better than Stefan even.

She knew she should run before things got awkward and the others found out because things would escalate. She had spent her whole life running and was used to it.

But Katherine didn't want to run anymore. Not from this.

She had never felt this way before. This was as close to being in love as she had ever felt. Somehow she felt he was worth sticking around for.

So she lay there and watched contently as he slept. He looked so innocent, young, but she knew better. They both weren't. Maybe it intrigued her that he wasn't. She wasn't perfect, so a perfect love life wouldn't be suited for her. Gradually, after a few minutes, as though Silas was aware he was being watched, he woke up, eyes wandering around, probably piecing together the night before, before they fell onto her, gazing at him shamelessly. He smiled at her. Her heart leaped into her throat at the look on his face. He looked so happy.

She wanted to keep it that way.

"Hi," she kissed him softly before he could answer. His hands tangled in her hair as he kissed her back causing a pleasant shiver to run through her body.

"I haven't done this in a _long _time," he laughed, running a hand down her face.

She sucked in air through her teeth, smiling.

"I could tell," referring to the night before. He had been impatient, to say the least.

She rolled on top of him, her hands roaming over his chest, kissing him more deeply.

"Hey," he said between kisses,

"I was wondering," his hands searched her body, smoothing along the sheets.

"If we could just keep this to ourselves for now," he pulled back, moving instead to press fiery, open-mouthed kisses down her neck to give her air.

"My sentiments exactly." was all Katherine managed to utter out. The effect he had on her was amazing.

"Great." he peeled the sheets away from their bodies in record time, pulling the blankets over them.

Katherine was still mulling over it later that afternoon. She'd managed to sneak out of the house, showered and looking presentable, but she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Hey, you okay?" Matt peered down at her from across the bar. She jumped in surprise. She was usually more guarded then that.

"Yeah, just tired I guess," she mumbled.

"Do you want anything?" he asked, pulling out a kettle from the side.

"Nope, just thinking." she said, staring into space, her mind quickly fixating on the events of last night and this morning again.

She was suddenly interrupted again by Caroline who had sat down next to her. Katherine nearly jumped again. Everyone was creeping up on her today.

Caroline grabbed the cup of coffee she just ordered and turned to Katherine.

"So, I know we hate each other, but we've made a pretty good team, helping Stefan and all," she began, tracing patterns on her cup. Katherine rolled her eyes impatiently. "Yeah?"

"Well, we're having a party at Whitmore and since you went to the last one, could you come? We can get barely anyone to come, so the more the merrier," Caroline laughed, sounding nervous.

"Stefan's coming too." she added. Katherine perked up. A party may be a good way to clear her head and figure out her feelings. She thought it suspicious of Caroline to just spontaneously invite her, but who was she to turn down a party invite?

"Okay, sounds good." she smiled tiredly, yawning.

"Great. It starts at six. It'll be easy to spot." Caroline beamed and then left with her coffee, heading towards Bonnie and Elena's table. She stood up and left the Grill, deep in thought. If anything was going to distract her, it was make-up and clothes. She headed for the Boarding House, intent on stealing Elena's clothes, if she actually had any interesting ones. She still hadn't returned the favour for Elena shoving the cure down her throat. She burst through the door unannounced, as always, noticing Stefan and Damon's resigned stares.

"What?" she pouted. She wanted to get this over with and get ready for the party.

"We were speaking about Silas' really creepy demeanour." explained Stefan.

Katherine's heart did a little jump at the mention of his name.

"Isn't he always creepy?" she laughed, trying to control her racing heart.

"Well, if he's walking around with a huge grin on his face and this super perky attitude, is that him being always creepy?" asked Damon dryly.

_Ah._ She thought, panicking, feeling slightly guilty for not telling them. He was being 'creepy' because of her.

She shrugged as nonchalantly as possible.

"Haven't seen him so I wouldn't know. Nor do I care about this mini-dilemma you've got going on. I've got a party to prepare for. Toodles." she waved at them and hopped up the stairs two at a time, eager to get away from the brothers impending stares.

Once she had slipped into one of Elena's dresses that was the most durable and the least boring, she set off for the party, which happened to be in full swing when she arrived. Caroline had been right-there were only a few people there, about thirty. Music was blaring in her ears, and disco lights were flashing across the walls. She saw Stefan talking to Bonnie and immediatley Silas came to mind.

_I need a drink._ She thought, elbowing her way through the crowd to the drinks table. She swallowed back a cup of punch and quickly filled it again, determined to have a good time.

"Heeey, look who's here!" Caroline yelled over the music, running at the punch bowl.

"I have nothing better to do," Katherine replied, her voice slurring slightly. The alcohol was kicking in. Caroline seemed about to fall over she looked so drunk. She was gulping her drink down like it was apple juice and giggling non-stop. Katherine followed suit, wanting to bury her emotions for the night. Caroline grasped her arm, tugging her away. She was more drunk than Katherine originally thought if she was planning on partying with the person who killed her. Caroline hopped up onto a table that hadn't been used for refreshments and started dancing manicly, whooping and cheering with a few others already on the table. As Katherine looked up at her, she found herself wishing she was as carefree as Caroline. Granted, she would dance with her if she was drunk enough, but it wouldn't erase the emptiness she felt in the pit of her stomach. Something she bet Caroline didn't have. She grabbed a jello shot and threw it back all in one go, welcoming the acquired, if slightly bitter taste to it. She wandered away with another shot, dancing with person after person, losing herself in the music. At some point Caroline joined her and several hours later, with a tipsy Elena, they found themselves in Caroline and Elena's dorm room. Katherine was draped over Bonnie's bed, while Caroline and Elena were sprawled all over the floor and all three were laughing uncontrollably.

Katherine sat up after recovering from her bout of drunken humour.

"We should do this more often," she slurred slowly, causing Caroline and Elena to laugh again.

"You two," she pointed at them,

"Are much more tolerable when you are drunk." she grinned, giggling.

"Ditto," murmured Elena, hugging the floor.

Caroline suddenly sat up, hair all over the place, looking like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

"Did Stefan come to the party after all?" she asked, frowning comically.

"Saw him talking to Bon-Bon, yeah." replied Katherine, slightly confused. Why did she want to know where Stefan was?

Elena looked at her, disorientated.

"When?" she slurred, struggling to sit up with them.

Katherine frowned. "When I first arrived, why?"

"I'm sure he got here at seven. You got there an hour before." Caroline said, realisation dawning on her features.

"Oh my God!" she shrieked, falling back on her hands in shock.

"Silas is here." Katherine muttered before she could stop herself, reaching the same conclusion. Had he followed her here?

"Heh heh imagine, Silas the ancient immortal, partying," Caroline mumbled, before collapsing into giggles, hunching over in amusement. Elena joined her hysterical fit. Katherine's heart was fluttering out of her control. An urge to see him shot through her, one she had to battle fiercely to ignore. She realised Elena had stopped giggling and was now staring at her.

"What?" Katherine cocked her head to the side.

"Why _is_ he here? Is it because he 'fancies' you, or..." Elena trailed off, raising her eyebrows, the hint of a smirk edging onto her face. Katherine felt as though she had been slapped. Where had that come from? Elena was boring, but very cutting with her words, and it appeared that being drunk did nothing to soften that. The conversation had just taken a dark turn.

"Oh yes Elena, because no-one could ever love me." Katherine said dryly, putting as much bite into the words as possible. She wasn't letting Elena get away that easily.

"Well, you haven't exactly done anything to deem you worthy of it." Elena snapped back, leaning forward. Caroline was glancing between the two nervously.

"I was scared and hunted for five hundred years by Klaus! Excuse me if I had to do horrible things to survive. It doesn't matter to Silas anyway, he cares about me just the way I am," Katherine gribbed the bed covers tightly, anger washing over her.

"Come on, it's Silas! He has one true love, and it's Amara." A smug smile was touching Elena's lips. Katherine breathed in and out slowly. She couldn't attack Elena, that would just result in her getting badly injured or killed.

"Damon loved me and then he fell for you didn't he? Why should it be different for me?" Katherine spat out, venom laced in her tone. She itched to rip Elena's eyes out.

"Okay, shall we just go back to the party?" Caroline desperately tried to dissolve the tension in the room.

"He has helped me, even when he didn't have to." Katherine raised her voice, effectively drowning out Caroline's, glaring at Elena.

"Yeah, because he thinks of you as a replacement Amara. Because he just wants you to sleep with him." Elena shot back, folding her arms. Katherine had had enough. She didn't care that she had promised she wouldn't divulge their secret. She was about to explode with rage and wasn't going to let Elena insult Silas or her anymore.

"Huh, well guess what Elena? I did," Katherine stood up, smirking.

"Woah, woah, wait. You what?" Caroline looked incredulous. Elena had been stunned into silence. Katherine's smirk grew wider.

"You heard. I did. And I'm not sorry I did it either." Katherine walked over to the door and opened it, eager to escape their judging and irritatingly hypocritical glares.

She practically ran back into the party, shoving through the crowd, determined to escape. She could hear Caroline calling for her, and she didn't want to hear what she had to say.

She turned around to look behind her and ran smack into someone, nearly spilling the remainder of her drink over them.

"Move out of-oh, it's you." she rolled her eyes. Of all the people she could have ran into, minus Klaus and perhaps Elijah, did it _really_ have to be Damon?

"Nice to see you too," Damon quipped, frowning at her. He looked up, trying to see above the mass of people.

"Hey, have you seen Elena?" he asked.

"Oh yes, my hypocritical, pathetic little shadow self is back in her dorm room, where she started a very pointless argument with me." Katherine smiled innocently at him, then pushed past him into the crowd to get to the drinks table. She wanted to be far away when Elena and Caroline told her little secret to anyone who would listen. She made herself a cocktail, gulping down the drink as fast as she could. Her world was slightly, blurred, out of focus as she stumbled for the door.

In her haste, she tripped and fell in an undignified heap on the floor. Blushing furiously, she was struggling to her feet when someone pulled her to her feet.

_It better not be Damon again._ Katherine thought, begrudged. Looking up, she saw it wasn't Damon, but Stefan, or was it Silas? She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, trying to figure it out. He smiled at her antics, still holding onto her arm.

_Silas._ She decided. Stefan would never look at her like that.

"Let me take you home, you're drunk," he said, walking her out the door. She was too flustered and drunk to argue. She had been leaving anyway. He gently carried her into his car, then got in the driver's seat. She felt strangely guilty, she had confided their secret. She turned to face him.

"Sorry," she slurred thickly. He looked at her strangely.

"What for?"

"Told Elena and Caroline about us, coz Elena thinks I can't be loved by you."

Silas clenched the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, and sighed. He looked angry, not really at her, but rather as soon as she mentioned Elena, he seemed furious.

Her world blurred even worse, and her vision started spinning. Humanity was taking its toll on her.

The blurs turned black and she passed out to the sound of music thumping in the background.

**Thank you for reading and please review! Any suggestions, let me know :-)**

**Thank you for reading! I really hope you liked it! I apologise if you wanted more M, I just can't write and don't write smut much. Please let me know what you think! :-)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks for reading! I apologise for the late update, I was on holiday and didn't have a computer, but I'm back!**

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other storylines belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

**I hope you enjoy! :-)**

She looked peaceful.

Silas had glanced sideways at her, only to find she had fallen asleep. She looked relaxed in her sleep. Moments before she had been fretting, worry lines marring her beautiful face. But he could stare at her all night regardless.

The thought of her being upset over breaking her promise to him gave him hope. Maybe her feelings for him were growing stronger. He smiled at the thought of being with her the other morning. It had been the first time in two thousand years that had made him feel truly alive again.

It also made him angry. Anyone who treated Katherine with any disregard for her feelings would find their throats ripped out to stop them from talking about her in that manner.

Elena Gilbert just happened to be first on his hit list.

The girl didn't know when to shut up. He would soon fix that problem.

He drove into the Boarding House driveway and carefully picked Katherine up. She mumbled slightly and shook her head at the motion. He fought his desire to laugh and carried her into his room and lay her down on his bed, trying not to wake her. He threw a blanket over her and left the room, closing the door behind him and headed downstairs, making himself comfortable on the couch. When the others came back from the party, he didn't want her involved in what was about to insue. If Elena knew, it was most likely she told everyone in their little gang as soon as possible and they were all headed home to find out if it was true, tell him Katherine was playing him, was selfish and couldn't wait to trample all over his heart, yada yada yada.

Just to ruin her life. When they were just as bad when retaliating to her.

Silas smirked inwardly. Well, soon enough they would know they'd crossed a line. A huge one.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon enough, flickering lights spilling across the room from the window and the sound of a car engine in the driveway informed him that at least some of them were back. Most likely the Salvatores, Elena and Jeremy.

Oh, how he hoped it was Elena.

The door clicked open and Elena, Damon and Caroline walked in. Or rather, Damon walked in supporting the two girls who were practically stumbling through the door drunkenly. Damon frowned when he saw Silas, and released Caroline, who was half-way into la-la land and Elena, who both leaned against the wall for support, too drunk to notice Silas' presence.

Without warning, Silas jumped up and grabbed Elena's neck, lifting her off the floor and shoving her against the wall before Damon had time to react. Silas stopped his approach using his compulsion, telling him to stay put, before turning his full attention to Elena, who was scrabbling frantically at Silas' tight hold on her with her nails and struggling desperately for air.

Silas only squeezed tighter, letting his rage control him.

"Say anything to Katherine like that again, question my love for her _ever_,and I will put you in that safe I put Stefan in, whether you look like her or not. And let me tell you, it is a rather unpleasant experiance. You got me?" he snarled at her.

Elena's eyes were wide with terror. Her mind circling to one thing. _Breathe, breathe, breathe._

"Y-yes." she choked out. He released her and she slumped to the ground, gasping for air. Damon rushed to her, smoothing her hair away from her face and reassuring her.

Satisfied that he had his answer, Silas walked away, heading for his room. He hadn't compelled her-he wanted her to be threatened into line, scared to harm Katherine, for now anyway. Knowing she was safer made him relax and more calm.

He didn't bother with Caroline; she had slept right through it.

**X**

He sat by her side until she woke up, glass of water and aspirin at hand because he knew from the amount of alcohol she had had and from personal experiance that she would have a _killer _headache when she got up.

After a few minutes, Katherine woke up. She groaned loudly, kicking away the sheets, pressing her hands to her head. She sat up slowly, still holding her head. Silas gave her the water and aspirin.

"Lifesaver." she threw back the aspirin and gulped down several mouthfuls of water. She placed the cup on the side table.

"Better?" he smiled. She nodded, still holding her head with one hand.

"In my day, we didn't have aspirin, so if we got drunk we had to live through the hangover. You're lucky." he laughed.

"Hey, you're forgetting someone else who was born back in the day." she pointed at him.

"Right." he'd forgotten about that. She suddenly groaned again and buried her face in her hands.

"Oh, dear. Did last night really happen?" she asked, voice muffled by her hands.

He leant forward in his chair. "'Fraid so."

"Damn it! Now everyone's gonna know." she sounded worried and hurt.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Elena got the message loud and clear." he grinned. Katherine looked up, hopeful.

"Oooh, what did you do?" she crawled towards him, an eager glint in her eyes.

"Just choked her, threatened her, the usual." he shrugged, unable to keep the grin off his face. Katherine looked delightful. Impulsively, she hugged him, smiling happily. He felt butterflies again, and hugged her back, determined to hold onto her for as long as possible. She drew back and kissed him deeply, fingers winding in his hair. He grabbed her waist, losing himself in her. The fireworks appeared again, and he didn't want to let go. She was his air, his life, his everything. He needed her to live, he just couldn't get enough of her.

She pulled back after a few moments, breathless and flushed. He wanted to kiss her again and again and again. The faint, joyful smile on her face made it all worthwhile. It made his wait for her less tiresome.

"Goody!" she smiled, her forehead pressed to his.

Then her expression became serious. "Thank you."

He smiled back, his heart fluttering. "Anything for you."

She let go of him, jumped out of the bed and headed for the shower, still cringing slightly in pain. The smile he had been wearing since yesterday was back full-force. As he walked out of the room and down the stairs, he touched his lips in a mix of wonder and astonishment, as though the kiss was tangible, still attached to his mouth. She _kissed _him. Again. This must be his lucky day. Maybe she was his after all.

Elena seemed to be in a mood, throwing cups and plates around at everyone and tossing blood bags at the vampires. She was still upset about last night's... events obviously. Seemed it was an after-party since Jeremy, Tyler, Stefan and Bonnie were all there too. He frowned at Bonnie. How was she alive? Did Qetsiyah bring her back? Another question for another time, he didn't exactly want to hang around in a room where a group of people hated him and who were currently giving him a half-I'm-going-to-kill-you, half-scared gaze probably because of Elena. It amazed him how the life of this one girl was so confusingly important that everyone in the room, savvy him would sacrifice _everything _for her. All he saw was an annoying, hypocritical, little brat who couldn't make up her mind which Salvatore to lead on next. He glared right back at them all and approached the freezer for a blood bag. He didn't get far. Damon flashed in front of him and slammed the freezer door shut.

"Sorry, we're closed." he smirked. Silas rolled his eyes. Damon really wasn't as funny as he believed.

"_Sorry_," Silas snapped back, trapping Damon in his psychic hold, compelling him. "You're going to have to let me past."

Damon looked begrudged, not to mention humiliated, as he was forced to step out of the way. Everyone else apart from Bonnie, Caroline and Stefan looked shocked. Clearly they hadn't seen the full extent of his powers, especially Jeremy and Tyler, since Jeremy he couldn't read the mind of, and he had never met the hybrid before now. He took out a blood bag, went to the cupboard for a cereal bar for Katherine, since he didn't have a clue what girls like her had for breakfast, and turned to walk out the kitchen, but didn't get far. Damon just couldn't take a hint if it bit him on the nose. He clearly didn't take embarrassment well.

"What, one night of hot sex with her and now you're whipped?" he asked snarkily, still standing next to the freezer.

_I'm gonna kill him. _Silas thought, stopping in his tracks. He should have exploded into flames by now he was so angry.

_Maybe Elena too, since she can't seem to keep her mouth shut._

"Wait, what?" Bonnie asked, turning her full attention to Silas.

"_What_?" Stefan sounded revolted. Silas turned back around to face Damon, who was now bearing an expression dripping with smugness.

"Last I checked, you hated her, so it's really not any of your business, Damon." Silas refrained from ripping his heart out, at least for now. He was the sort of supernatural being who killed when he needed to, or with the upmost boredom. But Damon didn't know that, so he did plunge his hand into Damon's chest, squeezing his heart in a death grip, before Damon could blink. If Damon moved at all he'd be dead. Terror washed over him in waves as he struggled to break away from Silas' grip. Stefan quickly stood up, edging slowly towards them, clearly torn between helping his brother and staying away from the man who had tortured him. He stopped a few feet away and held out his hands.

"Woah wait, Damon didn't mean it, just let him go, please." Stefan pleaded.

"You don't happen to be psychic, shadow self. Yes he did." Silas tugged slightly at Damon's heart, making him gurgle in pain and try to twist into a more comfortable position.

"Stefan, Stefan, he's gonna kill me. You really just gonna stand there?" Damon pulled at the tail end of Stefan's shirt desperately. Elena's eyes had widened dramatically in horror and pain. She lurched forward. The others faces were stunned, but they made no move towards Damon. They either hated him, or were too scared to.

"Don't kill him!" Elena cried.

"Silas please, killing him won't solve anything. Are you really going to kill the last of your family? Think it through." Stefan had stepped to Damon's side and grabbed what of Silas' arm wasn't buried in Damon's chest. Silas had considered killing Damon momentarily, if he was honest; the world would be a much better place without him in it, but decided against it. He had never intended on killing him anyway. But it was best to keep up appearances, keep people like Damon in line. Besides, he may be useful. Silas sighed and yanked his hand out of Damon's chest, releasing his heart and Damon collapsed to his knees, no longer held up by Silas. Stefan closed his eyes and breathed out heavily in relief. Elena was at Damon's side, helping him up and glaring at Silas.

"Next time, his heart comes out. Don't _ever_ underestimate me, or insult Katherine. Clearly you didn't recieve my threat well enough last night Damon. I am not the image of perfect mental health and I am more powerful than any of you could possibly imagine." Silas smiled sinisterly and walked away with his food, suddenly starving. Apparently torturing people was hungry work. He went into his room to find Katherine was out of the shower, laying on his bed, flipping through a magazine, wearing nothing but a robe. All thoughts of hunger floated straight out of his mind and his mouth went dry when he realised that, and he averted his eyes, looking anywhere to distract his body reacting to the sight of her like that. She saw him and smiled, tossing the magazine onto the bed and standing up. He couldn't speak, his mind stuck on the thoughts of what she looked like without the robe on.

"Hi," she walked toward him. "Got anything good?"

He realised what she said a few moments after she said it, eyes too busy wandering around her figure.

"Uh, yeah, here," he handed her the cereal bar. "Sorry, it was all I could get what with all the death stares I was recieving."

She laughed, and opened it. "It's fine-woah!" she pointed at his bloodied hand looking stunned.

"Did they bludgeon you down there or something?" she asked. He detected traces of anger in her tone and gave a small smile.

"No, I attacked Damon for spontaneously deciding to blurt out that we slept together to the entire room." Silas went to the sink and washed his hands quickly.

Katherine looked annoyed. "He's such a dick." she stated, munching on the cereal bar. Silas laughed, coming back into the room and opening his blood bag.

"I think that's part of the appeal. Anyway, you can talk. What did you see in him? Since you and him used to um..." he raised his eyebrows meaningfully whilst drinking from the bag.

"Shut up! I didn't know how annoying he was." she giggled, shoving his shoulder playfully. His skin tingled where she touched him as she did so.

_Was that flirting? I think that qualifies as flirting. _Silas thought, smiling happily at her.

"Right, I need to get faaaar away from here, I can't stand their hypocritical little glares anymore." she muttered. She scooped up her clothes and headed for the bathroom to change. He waited patiently for a half hour, entertaining himself by listening to the 'gang' talk about the recent events that aspired. She finally re-emerged, walking towards the door.

"Okay, let's go."

He smiled at her eagerness and followed her down the stairs. Her heels clicked loudly on the wooden floor which he guessed was for emphasis, giving them more to talk about and making a point.

He followed after her out the door and got in his car. He'd gotten it the other day for that party, since he was stranded by Damon and the others without means of transport.

"So, where to?" he asked, driving out of the grounds. She looked at him oddly, focusing on his hands on the steering wheel.

"What?" he looked over at her.

"You can drive? It's a tiny detail I missed out on when you drove me home, but _you _can drive?!" she sounded incredulous and confused, but a small smile played around the edges of her lips.

"Is that really such a shock? I am a person aswell you know, I need to get to places." he laughed.

"No, I was wondering how you learnt in the-what, four months now? That you've been around." she admonished, still looking at him.

"I adapted from people's minds. Compelled a driving instuctor to teach me too. This things are amazing! Phones too, I don't know how my people survived without them!" he burst out, then ducked his head slightly, suddenly feeling self-concious about blurting that out. Katherine just giggled at his enthusiasm.

"I know right? Compared to, like, a few hundred years ago when we had nothing but horses to travel with and people to send messages, which took weeks to recieve." she smiled, her expression drifting slightly as she daydreamed. Silas' breathing quickened as he listened to her. He just loved the sound of her voice. To add to it, she found technology almost as fascinating as he did. Just another thing in common that would bring them closer together. Hopefully.

"So where did you want to go?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Anywhere my daughter isn't, she's still upset with me over killing Gregor." Katherine rolled her eyes, but that didn't cover the guilt she was obviously feeling for hurting her child.

"You know, if she's still here, she probably wants to speak to you." he reasoned, then shrugged innocently when Katherine glared at him.

"Are you sticking up for her? She's listening in isn't she?" Katherine frowned. She gasped, her eyes lighting up in realisation.

"You have this car rigged don't you? Nadia, I know we had an argument, but I still love you!" she giggled, leaning forward.

Silas laughed. "Where'd you get that from?" he looked over at her, glad to see a smile on her face.

"Marley and Me." she shrugged, still smiling.

"Haven't heard of it, but then, I wasn't that interested in watching movies when I got out of that tomb. Didn't know they existed. The world moved on without me." he sighed dramatically and she laughed harder.

"You should. You'll cry so hard your eyes will fall out!" he could tell she liked the movie. It was like she had come to life, filled with animosity. He drove into the Mystic Grill car park, and glanced at her. She had sobered up, but still had that warm happy glow that made his insides fuzzy.

"Will this do?" he nodded at the Grill, parking the car.

"Yeah, just don't give me any alcohol, I've had enough to last a lifetime." she climbed out of the car and he followed suit.

Matt frowned slightly when he saw them enter. He was trying to figure out who they were.

"Kilas." Katherine said before he could open his mouth. Matt just looked even more confused, but asked their order. After he went, Silas turned to Katherine, smirking.

"Kilas?"

"Yeah, two names put together. It's quicker and they do it all the time in TV shows for couples." she replied offhandedly, then her eyes widened in shock as she realised what she said. She clapped her hands over her mouth as a deep blush began creeping up her cheeks. Alarm bells were going off in his head, and a deep warmth was spreading through his body. He felt like jumping in joy, but forced himself to remain still.

"You've given us a couple name?" he smiled.

"Just-the first thing... that um, that came into my head." she stammered, avoiding his gaze, trying to shrug it off. He liked seeing Katherine embarrassed. Not to be mean, just because it was a side of her he had never seen before. He was about to ask what that meant, but then Matt came back up to the bar with their coffee, cutting off his oppurtunity. He hated Matt right then. He paid him and turned back to Katherine, who seemed to be finding stirring her coffee fascinating. He felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach when he saw that. He hated it when she avoided him.

"So, um," he began, taking a sip of coffee to disguise his attempt to think of what to say.

"Why did you say it?" he hoped he didn't regret saying that.

She stopped stirring her coffee and licked her lips nervously. "I don't know."

He nodded and clucked his tongue. "What exactly do you feel for me?" he asked her bluntly. He had to know. It _must_ be more than mutual attractiveness. It was obviously _something, _or she wouldn't have slept with him knowing how he felt about her. He didn't think he could stand it if it wasn't. Katherine looked taken aback by the question. At first he didn't think she was going to answer, but she finally looked up and met his eyes.

"I, um, I feel," she muttered, casting her eyes down on the table. Silas turned away in exasperation and immediatly noticed Matt standing a few feet away, cleaning the bar, making little attempt to disguise the fact he was spying on them. Silas felt a spurge of hot fury. No way was this getting back to his shadow and the others. He couldn't let Damon get any more of a hold on him. It was a shame. He had _almost _liked Matt.

"Scram!" he barked at Matt, who jumped a mile and hurried off to serve another customer, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"You make me feel alive."

He turned back to her, stunned by her declaration. She stared at him defiantly, all traces of humiliation were gone from her face.

"You make me feel things that I haven't felt in a long time. Or really at all, for that matter, and I don't know what they mean."

He stared at her, his hopes soaring. She was his. He smiled at her and her expression softened.

"Is that what you wanted to hear?" she started drinking her coffee.

Silas just beamed. "Oh yes, very much so." he started sipping the bitter liquid in front of him, wondering how people liked this without milk or sugar.

Katherine just rolled her eyes,

"Jerk." she murmered, and continued drinking from her cup.

For a few minutes there was just an awkward silence, with the two of them just drinking their coffee to fill the expanding tension between them. Katherine finally set down her cup and stood up.

"Take me to Tyler's place please." Silas guessed that was her way of dismissing him, of getting away from problems, so he just nodded curtly and walked after her out the door. The rest of the car drive was in complete, intolerable silence, and Silas found himself wishing for the comfortable chatter they had had going on just twenty minutes ago. Guilt twisted in his stomach like a knife. It was all his fault, he should have left it. He knew she wasn't a very open person, so he shouldn't have pushed her.

When they got to Tyler's, Katherine instantly jumped out and slammed the door, stalking towards the house. She was definetly angry. He sighed. He couldn't let the day end like this, let her be upset. He loved her too much for that. Silas got out of the car and followed her to the front door. It had started raining and he felt so miserable, it felt as though it were weighing him down.

"Katherine, I'm sorry!" he broke into a sprint at her before she had time to open the front door. She froze, and slowly stepped back to face him, as though she was really dreading it.

"Don't," she closed her eyes, reaching out a hand to stop him getting any closer.

"Look, I'm sorry about that. It's just, I've never been this close to anyone. I've never had them love me for _me._ No expectations, so I found I could live again, I felt free. And when you started asking about the whole pairing thing, it felt as though you were taking back that freedom. I panicked." she looked away, slightly pitiful just standing there in the rain, water trickling down her face like tears and he could imagine he looked the same. He didn't really care though. What she had just said to him, made him feel exhilarated, apart from the end part. It made him feel as though he had been zapped with electricity. He stepped closer to her and grasped her hand, clenching it tightly. She didn't take it away. He didn't want her to be alone, or ever feel imprisoned by him again.

"I know, I shouldn't have done it, but I was abandoned by the only woman I'd ever loved until I laid my eyes on you," he started. He was beginning to feel rather damp, but she was listening to him, so he really couldn't care less. "And the truth is, I'm _terrified _my loved ones will leave me again, so I had to know if you loved me enough to stay, or at all really if I'm honest." he let it out all in one breath, still holding her hand, still looking at her like she was the only woman worth loving.

_Because_ _really_, he conceded. _She is._

She smiled back at him and responded by squeezing his hand tightly, causing the butterflies to come back. A wave of relief flooded through him He saw it as a sign and before he could change his mind, he crashed his lips onto hers, determined to seal their make-up with a kiss. She made a little squeal of surprise, before taking his face in her hands and kissing him back.

He pushed her into the porch of the house to get out of the rain, his hands firmly on her face, desperate to have her, have more. She gasped out his name, and he took that oppurtunity to deepen their kiss, tilting her head back slightly, and sweeping his tongue through her mouth. Her arm was wrapped around his neck, her other hand wound into his hair and his whole body was buzzing with excitement and want. His left hand ran down her waist, around to the back of her thigh, hoisting it halfway up to his waist. She took the hint and used the wall as leverage to wrap her legs around his waist. He used this to his advantage and backed her further against the wall, pressing their bodies closer together. It was bliss for him. He felt as though he was half-way to heaven. He didn't know nor care how much time had passed, minutes, hours, but didn't_-couldn't _stop. She pulled away suddenly, gasping for air and giving her kiss-swollen lips a break, whilst he nuzzled and kissed at her neck, enjoying the moment. She yanked him back up and kissed him again, but it was slower, not as frantic or hot or deep, but somehow more passionate.

She pulled away after a few moments, bringing him back to reality and he released his grip on her. She unwound her legs from his waist and stepped back, both still breathing heavily.

"I don't think Matt and Tyler would appreciate coming back to find us playing tonsil hockey so..." she trailed off, playing with her zip.

"Tyler's going to college and Matt's working." he smirked, starting to walk away but couldn't resist kissing her one more time before he left. He just approached his car, when he remembered something he'd said a long time ago, something he needed to rectify because now was the time it had become meaningful. He turned back to her. She was just opening the door when he called her name. She faced him, smiling.

"I once said to Amara that when I looked at her, all I saw was an angel. I was wrong." he called out to her.

Her smile widened when she realised his meaning.

So she stood on the porch and watched him drive away, making him feel like the luckiest man in the world.

**I hope you enjoyed this! I felt I needed to explore Silas and Katherine as separate people too, not just 'kilas', and I added a little extra detail at the end, since I read my previous chapters and decided I needed it. I apogise if it was too descriptive!**

**I'm not sure where to go next, but I might have an Originals crossover, or bring Amara into it. Please let me know what you think I should do! :-)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks for reading! I have decided to go with an Originals crossover, since that happened in the actual show.**

**Btw, «X» means different pov and ~X~ means different scene.**

**Disclaimer: The characters and parts of other storylines belong to L.J Smith and Julie Plec but this story is mine.**

**I hope you enjoy! :-)**

Katherine smiled at Silas as she opened the door of Tyler's place, (or was it Matt's now?) where he stood patiently waiting for her. She immediatley grabbed his hand, eager to escape from the house since her daughter had arrived a few hours ago, still giving her the evils and apparently determined to drive her away, which was becoming rapidly successful. Although, on the plus side, she wouldn't have returned if she truly hated her. Silas smiled back at her, causing pleasant shivers to skitter down her back, and tugged her towards his car impatiently. She had come to enjoy the feelings he stirred inside her. That the mere touch of his skin on hers was unearthing feelings that had long been buried.

She was in deep.

He released her hand and she pouted, never wanting him to let her go, making him chuckle as he opened the passenger door for her like a gentlemen, which she mentally noted, before getting in himself.

"Where are we going?" She asked curiously, leaning forward in her seat.

"You'll see," Was all he was giving away, knowing it would infuriate her.

"Okay, just tell me, is it like, a date or something?" She looked over at him, _very_ much getting infuriated.

"Yeah." He dragged the word out slowly, smirking.

Oh, he was annoying. But, he loved her, and she was... nearly there. She just didn't believe in love at first sight.

She beamed. "Great! We're getting somewhere." The prospect of a first date wasn't something she had had to look forward to for a long time.

He threw her a look so full of love, and joy and well, _emotion, _she couldn't help fall a teensy bit in love with him right there.

He grinned widely at her, and God, how she loved that smile, it gave her insides butterflies, she had never even seen it on Stefan, proving their differences.

"We're only just getting to that part."

**~X~**

For the first time in, well, ever, Katherine could say she'd enjoyed a date. She'd never really been on one before, not in the meaningful sense anyway. She felt relaxed and excited about something, which hadn't happened since she had been a vampire. It was small and private, which she had to admit, Silas got points for. It turned out, his surprise was he now owned an apartment just outside of town and they were having dinner there. It was very cosy and comfortable, the candles he'd set out in the kitchen made a light romantic setting. She instantly took a liking to it. He grabbed her hand, shaking her out of her stupor and took her over to the table in the kitchen with red roses set in a stylishly carved vase in the middle. It was simple, but elegant.

"Wow!" Was all she could say. He smiled shyly, which was a weird concept because she had seen Stefan smile like that, but never him. When he smiled like that, she had trouble differentiating between the two.

"You like?"

"Mmmm hmmm!"

She sat down in the chair he pulled out for her and he sat down opposite her.

"So, psychic immortal doppelgänger with an unstable mental state, what do you have in store for little old me?" She twirled a strand of her hair around her forefinger, smirking. She didn't think she'd ever flirted so openly before.

"Well," He headed towards his fridge. "I have wine!" He brandished the bottle in the air, clearly responding to her flirtatious comment.

She laughed. "I told you, I've had enough of that stuff to last a lifetime." She said, even as she accepted the glass he poured out for her.

A bottle of wine and two meals later, Katherine was having the time of her life. She learnt more about Silas' past, his family, and he learnt about hers. It made her slightly nervous that she trusted him more and more every day, but she just couldn't help it. Him being a perfect cook didn't exactly help either.

"It's funny," She slurred. "You'd think you would be a terrible cook after being underground for however many years, so you wouldn't know traditions in this country _and_ you drink blood."

"Just another part of the modern world I find interesting," He smiled, tilting his head to the side. In the dark light, it looked as though his eyes were smouldering. Katherine found it beautiful.

"Especially since I'm from Greece. It's very different here."

"Did you ever go back? To Greece I mean. I never went back to Bulgaria." Katherine asked, dredging up memories of her home, both good and bad, long since forgotten.

"Yeah, after I found out where I was. Turns out my island had been separated from Greece by the sea in the long time I was trapped there. During the summer I visited. It's actually not that much different, just a lot more places and people really."

"I've been a few times. Here and there." Katherine gestured.

He smiled and stood up to collect the dishes. Clearly he'd been raised a gentleman. She glanced out of the window and saw it was nearing early evening. How long had she been here? She looked at her watch. Nearly six. She was stunned; she'd been here about four hours!

_Time flies when you're having fun. _She laughed silently. She looked over at Silas, who was just drying his hands. She felt a small tug at her heart just looking at him.

He finished drying his hands, walked over to the table and sat back down again. He caught her staring.

"What are you looking at?" His eyes flickered around the room.

"You." Oh, she'd had more wine than she realised. Her brain felt foggy, and the words she wanted to say, words she needed kept tightly under wraps were just spilling out of her mouth in an undignified way before she could stop them.

"I feel like dancing. I want to dance with you." She blurted out, pouting childishly. Inwardly she cringed. She badly wanted to touch him, but saying it like that made her sound bratty.

He blinked in surprise at her, but otherwise showed no other signs that he had heard her. Then he stood up and held out his hand to her, smirking. She breathed out in relief and took it, standing up in front of him. Like a switch, her body burst into life, buzzing energy, her hand tingling where he held it. He very gently placed a hand around her waist, and her other hand came to rest on his shoulder. Her eyes met his, and she felt the overwhelming chemistry between them in the single moment she realised they were literally about two inches apart. They slowly started moving, her requested dance very random, but nonetheless enjoyable. Her heartbeat quickened as she leaned into his neck. His cologne made her breathing catch, and her feelings were going into overdrive, they were surfacing everywhere, making her desire for him even deeper. It wasn't until now that she realised her feelings for him were becoming more intense, and she wanted to act on them. Now.

Still swaying to non-existent music, Silas suddenly stepped back and twirled her. She loved the feel of spinning, her hair flying everywhere around her face, and she took the oppurtunity to tighten her hold on his fingers, never wanting to let go.

She didn't know who kissed who, but as he reeled her back in, she stepped closer and their lips just met. Pure need for him shot through her veins. It was a feeling of sureity and safety, just like yesterday, but inside and out of sight, they allowed their kiss to become more heated, deeper, a message to continue, take it further and pick up from the other night. She let go of his hand to wind her fingers through his hair, smoothing her other hand down her chest. His hand twisted in her hair, the other still on her waist. Using the hand on his chest, she started unbuttoning his shirt slowly. Too slowly. Impatiently, she broke away and ripped his shirt away from his body as quickly as possible. He helped, an amused expression on his face, before she continued kissing him. She kicked off her heels, and he reached behind her to zip her dress down. She grabbed his forearms and stepped out of it, before he picked her up and lay her on his sofa.

She giggled as Silas kissed his way up her stomach, her skin buzzing with excitement where he did so. Her hands ran down his bare back, nails lightly scraping him. She tilted her face back and muttered his name as he gently kissed her neck. He reached around her to unclasp her bra, but suddenly Katherine's phone went off. The trilling tune seemed too loud and annoying for her in the passionate moment she was enjoying. Silas buried his face in her hair, groaning.

"Ignore it." He whispered, kissing her neck again. She tried, but the phone kept up its insistent ringing, and it was piercing her skull. In the end, irritation overrode her feelings and she pulled away and walked over to her bag. She pulled out her phone and answered it without looking at the caller ID.

"What!" She snapped, getting dangerously annoyed. Silas snorted in laughter at her abrupt opening.

"Katerina?" Elijah's voice floated out of the phone. She suddenly lost her voice, unsure of what to say, her insides freezing. Then she sobered, and her head seemed to clear. For months, she'd wanted him to call, and now, when she finally had gotten over him, he decided to pop up. No way was she going to let him off easily. Anger melted the ice inside her, and she finally refound her ability to speak.

"Oh, finally found New Orleans boring have you? Well sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not in the mood for whatever you have to say to me." She snapped. How dare he! Was he expecting to call and everything would be okay?

"I'm sorry Katerina but listen to me, I'm in Mystic Falls with Klaus, he knows you're human and wants your blood."

"I don't care Elijah. Don't you Katerina me! If you were really protecting me, you would have called before you left, or tried to stop Klaus. Why tell me you're in Mystic Falls? Hoping for a nice chit-chat? Believe me, the last thing I want to do is see you. Anyway, I have means of protection, so don't worry about me. You didn't before remember?" She hissed acidly, glancing over at Silas, who looked very confused.

"Please Katherine, ru-"

Katherine cut him off. "Nah, I think I like it here. Besides, I was very busy before you so rudely interrupted. Toodle-oo!" Then she hung up, not giving him a chance to worm his way back into her affections.

"Are you okay? You're shaking." Silas walked over to her and handed her her dress. She shook her head and slipped the dress back on over her head and he zipped it up for her.

"That was Elijah. Klaus is back for my blood. I don't know how he found out, but I just, I can't stand them, and Elijah, he won't stop Klaus, he'll stand there and watch me die, because that's what he's always done. That's why he told me to run. He was always a such a coward." She pressed a hand to her forehead, still angry, but panicking. The news that Klaus was here had sunken in and instinct told her to run.

"Hey, look at me," Silas pulled her hand away from her head.

"I won't let Klaus harm you, I will protect you at all costs, I will kill him if necessary. Okay?" Each word was laced with conviction and she knew he really meant it. She nodded, and interlocked their fingers.

"Thank you."

He looked at their knotted hands and then at her. He kissed her fervently and cupped her face with his hands.

"Stay here for the night. Klaus doesn't know I live here, and I will find a witch to block locator spells so you will be fine."

She nodded again. "Okay."

**«X»**

Elijah stared at his phone, deep in thought. He still felt stung from Katherine's response to him, but he was also curious as to what she meant when she said she had protection. There was no-one more powerful than the Original vampires, they were the oldest supernatural beings in the world, so who could protect her? The answer came to him as quick as lightening.

There was one person. An immortal being, who had been dessicated and trapped in a cave a thousand years before even the Originals themselves had been born. A psychic that brought even Klaus to his knees, and only a few months ago had attacked him again, or so Klaus claimed. Horror washed over him as he realised. Was it possible? Had Katherine struck a deal with the devil? If that was the case, they had walked right into a situation well beyond their control. He couldn't be sure, last he heard Bonnie Bennett had turned him into stone, he couldn't be free, unless Bonnie had died. That was the only logical explanation, though a very unlikely one. He was interrupted by Klaus, who burst into the room, a big, happy smirk painted on his face, that made Elijah even more upset. This couldn't be good news.

"Ah, Elijah, I just happened to visit Elena and Damon, who told me where our beloved Katerina is at. He said try Tyler's. Two surprises in one day. We can go tomorrow." Klaus walked out of the living room, and hopped up the stairs, presumably to his room, followed by Elijah, who returned to his thought process. He knew he should tell Klaus to leave as a precaution, but then Klaus would know Elijah had tried to sell him out to Katherine and he would be daggered, thus making his efforts futile.

Elijah sighed. He guessed they would have to find out tomorrow if his theory was true.

**«X»**

The sunlight streaming through the window, warming Katherine's face. She sat up in alarm, realising she was in a complete unfamiliar surrounding. For a second, she didn't know where she was, and then her memory of last night came rushing back. Klaus was back, and Elijah was being a pig-headed moron about it. She groaned and threw the blanket back. Might aswell get up now, since the mere thought of those two wouldn't be getting her back to sleep anytime soon. She showered and changed back into the clothes she had worn last night since she hadn't any others. She found Silas in the kitchen, _shirtless_, which made her heart pound, drinking a cup of coffee. He set another one down in front of her and she took it with a grateful smile.

"I need some fresh clothes, I'm gonna get some from Tyler's."

"Do you want me to come with you?" He leant forward in his chair, concerned.

She was torn just then, not wanting to sound scared, and not wanting to be alone if Klaus found her. She nodded before she could change her mind. He stood up and went to his room, presumably to get a shirt. She straightened her dress and sipped her coffee while she waited for him. He came out wearing a simple grey top that reminded her vaguely of Stefan.

"Come on," He took her hand and led her out the door and down the stairs to his car.

She thought of Elijah on the way over, how he had ruined her ability to love easily because he wouldn't believe the truth she so rarely spoke, and that if he hadn't called, she could have been a whole lot happier right now.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He drove around the corner, she turned to look at him, surprised.

"I thought you were psychic?" She smirked.

"Oh, I am, I just can't read your mind very well," he shrugged. She was confused; how was that possible?

"Why?"

He sighed. "I don't know, I think it's your personality, running for five centuries you learnt to protect yourself, both inside and out. I can read your thoughts sometimes, but it's fuzzy like a miswired radio station." he explained. She blinked in shock and turned back to face the front of the car just as he pulled into Tyler and Matt's driveway.

She smiled and got out of the car.

"Thanks."

She walked in and jumped up the stairs two at a time into her room, eager to get out before she was noticed. She changed her clothes and packed some more in a rucksack with a toothbrush, just in case Klaus came here. She wasn't leaving anything to chance. She ran down the stairs back out to the car, threw the rucksack in the back and hopped in. Silas drove back out onto the main road. As they turned, she thought she saw Nadia's angry face appear in one of the windows. Guilt weighed heavily in her gut. She knew she would have to reconcile with her daughter someday, but if Klaus knew she was alive, he would kill her without mercy.

"I'm going to the Grill to get a takeout, do you want something?" Silas asked her, looking at her with a worried expression. She shook her head, too overcome with fear to speak. He got out of the car and she followed him, and he grabbed her hand, seeming to want to be close to her. She squeezed his hand as they walked up to the bar, getting a strange look from Matt as he walked past. She groaned silently. _That_ would definetly be going back to the Scooby gang. Silas paid for the takeout and they both sat down and waited for the order.

He turned around at gave her a smile that made her stomach flip, making her in that moment feel completely safe.

**«X»**

Klaus rapped on Tyler's door loudly, making no effort to disguise who he really was, and with no regard for any neighbours living nearby.

"Tyler, if you don't open the door I swear, I'll burn this house down!"

Elijah sighed. His brother was rather over-dramatic. He just hoped that Katherine had had the good sense to listen to him and had moved out.

There was a pattering inside that informed them that Tyler was coming down the stairs. Rather reluctantly, he might add. He swung open the door.

"What do I owe the pleasure, Klaus?" Tyler sneered.

"Oh not much, just tell me where Katerina is and I'll consider letting you live." Klaus smiled. Tyler sighed, clearly used to the threats.

"No idea, I think she came here about half an hour ago, then took off again." He shrugged. Elijah felt a pervading sense of disappointment. He had been hoping to see her, but at least she took his words under advisement.

Klaus gritted his teeth and marched off. "If she was here half an hour ago, she can't be far!"

Elijah rolled his eyes and took off after him, silently cursing his brother's inability to let sleeping dogs lie.

**~X~**

Klaus suddenly veered off the road and drove up to the bar, fixated on something in front of him. Elijah frowned, he didn't know why he had pulled up to the Mystic Grill at all places, and then he saw why. Katherine was there, her back to them, but there was no mistaking her long, chocolate curls falling down her back. For a moment, he was mesmerised by the sight of her-he hadn't realised how much he had missed her until he saw her. He instantly wanted those months together looking for the cure back and instantly felt a tiny twinge of regret root itself firmly in his heart. Klaus jumped out of the car eagerly and walked toward the Grill. Elijah had to distract him, there was simply no other option. He leaped out at Klaus, who frowned at him suspiciously.

"What are you doing? Move."

"Nicklaus wait, what if Silas is here? You said he attacked you again not too long ago, we are walking into unsureity." Elijah said quickly, holding his arms out to prevent Klaus from moving any further. Klaus' eyes widened slightly, but that was the only sign Elijah saw that he was scared of him.

"You think Silas is here? That was months ago, and he could be anywhere by now. Besides, I was in Whitmore when it happened." Klaus rolled his eyes impatiently and stepped around him, reaching for the door.

And Elijah felt like he had just died when he did.

**«X»**

Katherine tapped her fingers on the wooden surface, not nervously, or out of boredom; just out of habit, a distraction, nothing more. The delivery had taken longer than expected, so Silas had gone around to ask for, or compel some answers out of the cooks. She was so absorbed in her tapping, that she didn't realise someone had slid into the seat right next to her. It wasn't until he spoke in a hauntingly familiar voice that she jerked up out of her distracted state in surprise.

"Aah Katerina. It really has been too long."

Her eyes flickered up to the face that had featured in her nightmares for as long as she could remember. Fear flooded her body, and she slipped out of her seat to run, but he grabbed her arm in a bone-crushing grip. She instinctively knew trying to escape would result in a broken arm. She looked around for Silas, who was nowhere in sight.

He laughed at her feeble attempt to get away. "Now is that really any way to treat an old friend?"

He practically hauled her towards the door, nearly colliding with Elijah on the way. His eyes filled with pity, and an obvious need to rescue her, but he stayed where he was. Her fear was replaced by intense disgust and she curled her lip at him.

"Guess you still can't save me when it matters. All for someone who will literally stab you in the back. You really are a coward." Katherine spat out venomously.

His face just remained passive, emotionless, and it enraged her even more. Klaus just chuckled and dragged her to his car.

"Oh love, no-one is coming to save you." He breathed into her ear.

Her mouth went dry with unease, she cringed when he spoke in her ear and she wanted to shove him away. He opened the front passenger door and was about to shove her in when Silas spoke from behind them.

"Get your filthy hands off her." Each word was laced with undisguised fury and contempt. Her knees nearly buckled in relief and she let go of the fear she had been holding to her, deep inside. Klaus paused, seemingly shocked, then turned around to face him, releasing Katherine's arm and she instantly backed away, rubbing her arm as darts of pain shot up it, trying to restore her circulation.

"Just come to collect my blood for my hybrids. Not that you should care, you like the other one anyway." He smirked arrogantly.

_Oh. _She thought. He assumed he was Stefan. Big mistake.

"Oh no, the other one's not my taste at all. In my opinion, she's an annoying little prat." Silas said in a nonchalant tone. He seemed calm, which was the most deadliest he could be, the anger bubbling under the surface, ready to explode. Confusion was written over Klaus' face as he regarded 'Stefan'.

"Yeah, I don't know what Stefan saw in her. But then, my shadow self has made some sad decisions in life." He continued, leaning casually against the Grill window, legs crossed. She could practically _feel_ Klaus' fear as he took a step back.

"Silas."

"Indeed, I am the two thousand year old immortal who Bonnie Bennett foolishly _thought_ she got rid of." Silas confirmed, pushing off the window and stepping towards him. Klaus swallowed and stood up straighter, trying to mask his fear.

"You can't kill me, so don't bother threatening me."

Silas just laughed. "Cockiness masking fear. How transparent _Nicklaus. _You know,that stake you hallucinated about? That was just the beginning of my reign of terror. You've barely seen anything yet. I stuck Stefan in a quarry for three months, I could put you in there a lot longer, no-one would notice. No one would miss you."

Whilst he had been speaking, Silas had slowly approached Klaus, who seemed frozen in fear, and had suddenly grabbed him by the throat and shoved him against his car violently. Klaus struggled instinctively to breathe, although he didn't need to, and grabbed his hand, trying to tug it away, but to no avail.

Katherine couldn't help but be impressed.

"So, instead of putting you out of your misery like you deserve, since I don't have the stake on me, and my doppelgänger is in your bloodline, I'm going to tell you once, and once only. Stay away from Katherine for the rest of your pathetic existence, don't ever harm or threaten her again." He released a sputtering and stunned Klaus from his compulsion. Klaus was backing away slowly, an edge of terror to his movements. Silas waved his hand and smiled mockingly.

"Toodles."

Klaus was gone before he'd even finished the word.

**«X»**

Elijah had stepped back into the Grill, out of sight, as soon as it had become clear it wasn't Stefan threatening Klaus. He knew he should have been defending his brother, but Klaus had betrayed him too often, and hadn't listened to his warnings that Silas was around. Now he thought it was time to repay him for that. Besides, he didn't have a chance against Silas, due to his mental powers, he wasn't foolish enough to try to stop Silas, especially if _Klaus_, of all people was scared of him. He watched Klaus flash away in humiliation and fear, obviously wanting to get away before word got out that there was someone out there more powerful than him, and he would no longer have control, particularly in New Orleans, where the streets were ripe with magic and brimming with supernatural beings. He couldn't believe _Silas_, had taken a liking to Katherine. Elijah couldn't hope to compare. Silas must be using her, it was the only explanation Elijah could take. Then Silas turned to Katherine and kissed her on the forehead before hugging her, and he felt a sharp stab of envy hit him, because Silas seemed to understand Katherine a whole lot better in a few months than Elijah had in five hundred years, and he definetly didn't seem to be using her, based on the look he just gave her, reminiscent of the way Stefan used to look at Elena.

**«X»**

Silas kissed her on her forehead, but she wished it was on her lips. He hugged her and she sank gratefully into him, sighing into his chest, feeling perfectly safe in his arms. She didn't know where Elijah or Klaus had gone, and right now she didn't care.

"Thank you." She murmured into him. He laughed bitterly.

"Don't worry, that creep won't touch you again." She could feel his chin moving on her head as he spoke. She smiled and let go of him.

"We can go back to mine." He offered, tilting his head and shrugging his shoulder, smiling innocently, as though he hadn't just threatened the most powerful hybrid in the world.

"Okay." She beamed, remembering the night before, before they were disrupted.

That was perfectly fine with her.

**«X»**

Elijah gritted his teeth in annoyance as he swung his hotel door shut. Klaus had left without him, a clear message that he knew Elijah had betrayed him, so he couldn't get back to New Orleans until Monday. Now he had to deal with avoiding Katherine giving him guilt-trips and a vengeful Silas for the next few days. As he swung his bag angrily onto the bed, he heard a soft rap on the door, one that he would have missed, had he been a human. He calmed himself and opened the door.

_Speak of the devil._

It was Katherine. He felt like he couldn't breathe. She looked beautiful, her hair waving around her shoulders, eyes compellingly magnetising. But then, she had always been beautiful. His mind tripped for a moment on a suspiciously tiny flaw. Didn't she have longer hair? Wasn't it more curly? Then she stepped forward and he instantly focused on her and nothing else, his thoughts all on her.

"Katherine, what are you doing here?" He moved aside to let her in.

"I came to apologise, for today." She said, tucking her hair behind her ears as she walked in.

"I was angry, I didn't mean what I said."

Elijah frowned. "It's fine, no need to apologise, Nicklaus is quite violent."

"But, I just wanted to say," She took a breath. "I do mean this. My feelings for you never went away, Silas is really just protection, nothing more. I still love you, Elijah." She smiled, tilting her head slightly to the side.

Those were the magic words he wanted to hear, the impossible theory he had dreamed up had come true. He smiled in relief and ever so slowly leaned in and kissed her, giving in to his feelings. She kissed him back, fingers in his hair. After a few moments, she pulled back, smiling. He stroked her hair and she stepped into the hall.

"I really have to go, I'd stay if I could." She stepped out the door, looking apologetic.

"'Bye." She grinned, giving him a little wave. "Goodnight, Katherine." He smiled back and, in closing the door, he missed the sweet, loving smile, turn into a pleased and smug one, satisfied at recieving the perfect means for making her ex jealous.

Oblivious to this, he couldn't stop smiling the entire night.

**Thank you for reading! I promise it will make more sense next chapter! Please review, and tell me if I should bring Amara into the mix, it really means a lot. :-)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Lol, I love how I said I was making this a two shot and now I'm on chapter 13... thanks for reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own tvd characters or mentions of tvd storylines in this story, they belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith.**

Silas woke in a dazzling light. He'd left the window open. Well, it had been the last thing on his mind last night. Speaking of... he sat upright, realising the space next to him was empty, save for a few sheets.

"Katherine?" He looked around the room. The steady dripping of water in the au suite bathroom told him she was having a shower. He breathed out in relief. After yesterday's events, he had been initially panicked that his compulsion on Klaus hadn't worked.

He swung himself out of the bed, pulled some clothes out of his cupboard, and changed into them. The water had stopped pouring, informing him she was out of the shower. She emerged in a white robe, scrubbing her hair dry.

"Hi," She smiled. He smiled back, he couldn't help it; her smile was contagious. "Where's my, um, rucksack?"

He rummaged around their clothes which were strewn around the room until he found her rucksack buried in a corner. He handed it to her and she pulled out underwear, a folded blouse and jeans from the top and changed into it quickly.

"Right, I need to go to the Boarding House and get more of my stuff." He said, throwing on a jacket.

She nodded, fluffing her hair. "I need to get some more clothes, these are all I have."

He kissed her quickly, wanting to remember that moment, since he wouldn't see her for the rest of the day, then turned and headed for the door.

"Wait!"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her.

"Uh," She looked nervous, an expression he had never seen on her before, twisting her hands together. "I don't actually have any money." She admitted in a low murmer. He walked back over, took a credit card out of his wallet and handed it to her. He trusted her, and felt a little sorry for her. She clearly didn't like being human.

"The pin is 4524." He told her, before she could get any words out. She gingerly took it, as though she had never been handed a credit card before. She obviously hadn't had that sort of money in a long time, something he wanted to rectify. She smiled and gave him another sizzling kiss seared into his brain for the day.

"Bye," He toyed with the ends of her drying hair before letting them go with a reluctant sigh and leaving the apartment.

**«X»**

Katherine rifled through the racks of clothing, picking out some of the most expensive outfits. She was having the time of her life and had been to four shops already, _and _had bought a new iPhone-her old one had run out of battery and been cracked beyond repair long ago. She was currently hefting six shopping bags in her hands and she wasn't even finished yet. She scanned the credit card and collected her seventh bag, but as she turned around, she bumped into a man's chest, nearly tumbling over in her new high heels.

She looked up to snap a rude response at them, but it died on her lips when she met Elijah's eyes.

"Didn't you leave with Klaus?" Was the only thing that came out of her mouth.

Elijah looked confused. "No, I stayed at a hotel last night, Klaus went without me. Katerina you know this."

Now Katherine was also thoroughly confused. "First of all, I told you not to call me that, and second, I didn't know you were at a hotel. How could I? I was with Silas." _An incredible all-nighter! _she refrained from saying.

Elijah frowned. "Really? Katherine, we _kissed._ Is this another game?"

Katherine squinted at him. _What is he going on about? _"No we didn't, don't you think I would know if we did that? What are you yapping about?"

"You know what?" She spoke before he could reply. "I don't care. Leave me alone Elijah, you've done enough." She pushed past him and walked out of the store as fast as her heels could carry her, hoping he wouldn't follow her. Her shopping spree had been cut short.

**~X~**

Katherine fumbled for the door to the apartment, which was quite hard when you had armloads of shopping bags. She finally managed to open it and dumped the bags all over the floor, exhaling in relief. Shopping was hard work. She saw the bedroom door wide open and walked into it. She saw Silas packing away some more clothes in his cupboard. He smiled, amused when he saw her.

"I see you had fun." He nodded at her new outfit and shoes.

"I have seven more bags of it out there." She grinned expectantly, holding out the credit card. He rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, took the card, and went out to get them. She twirled happily. Life was looking up, apart from the minor-not-so-minor Elijah thing that had been pretty hard to blow off, since she was so angry at him, he should have exploded from her hate glare today.

"What thing with Elijah?" Silas had come back into the room with her bags, making her jump. He sounded concerned, which in turn made her confused. "I thought you couldn't read my mind?" She asked, folding her arms, suspicious.

"You were projecting pretty aggressively. It was hard to not pick up on. You must really hate the guy." Silas sounded relieved at that fact, and a little sheepish about his mind-reading explanation.

She exhaled heavily, sitting down on the bed. "I ran into him, and he seemed to have gotten it into his head that I found him at a hotel and that we... kissed."

"But we didn't!" She added hastily when she saw the hurt look on his face. "I didn't even know he was still in town, let alone what _hotel _he was staying in. I wouldn't-I hate him, he abandoned me when I needed him most! I wouldn't do that. Not to you." She walked over to him and cupped his face, desperate to make him believe her. He nodded, grabbing her hands.

"Okay, I believe you."

Relief flowed through her veins. She reached up and kissed him lightly. Realisation dawned on her.

"Wait, if it wasn't me, then who was it?"

His eyes widened in shock. He let go of her hands and ran his hand through his hair.

"Oh, you've got to be _kidding _me!"

**«X»**

Silas grabbed his phone from the kitchen counter and scrolled through his contacts. Thanks to Katherine he'd gotten many people's numbers, and he had to warn the scooby gang, however annoying they were. Stefan and Elena could be in danger. He called Stefan, and pressed the phone to his ear, hoping Stefan would pick up despite hating him.

"What is it?" Katherine asked, looking at his phone. Before he could reply, Stefan answered.

"Hello?"

"Stefan? Don't hang up, listen to me, Amara is in Mystic Falls and she may go after you and Elena, you have to leave. _Now._"

"Amara, as in your ex-girlfriend Amara?" Stefan asked, dubious and suspicious.

"Yeah, who else? Now _go!" _Silas hung up before his doppelgänger could reply.

"Amara? Why would she go after Elijah?" Katherine asked, frowning. She looked shocked.

"She's sending me a message, impersonating you was showing me that she's been watching us for a while now." Silas couldn't believe this was happening. Why couldn't she leave him alone? Fifty years had done it's damage.

Katherine visibly paled. "I can safely say I know how Elena felt when I did this."

He laughed. He wasn't at all surprised, but Katherine was someone who had thought her plan through, her violent messages were meant to scare, not kill. Amara was unpredictable, her next move throwing you at every turn, her one motive unknown, but she would do anything to anyone who got in her way, not caring about the consequences.

"You're coming with me. She probably knows where we live. Pack your bags." He grasped her hand and hurried back into his bedroom where he quickly threw some clothes, shoes and other necessities into a bag, whilst Katherine picked up her shopping bags.

He stopped and looked at her as she somehow managed to balance all seven on her arms again.

"What?"

"Katherine, I love you, but I'm not taking all those bags with us." Silas said adamently, zipping up his suitcase.

"Don't worry, I'll take them myself." She grumbled, hobbling past him out the door. He sighed and followed her, giving in and taking some off her arms. She grinned at him innocently and walked ahead out the door. He groaned internally at how soft he was when it came to her.

"Where are we going anyway?" She asked, throwing her bags into his car boot. He dumped the remaining bags in aswell and went around to the drivers seat.

"Probably to Whitmore, we can just pretend to be students, and I'm willing to bet Stefan and Elena are there too."

Katherine got in and plugged her seat belt in. She looked at him with a nervous expression.

"What do you think Amara will do if she finds us?"

"Well, if she touches you, I'll attack her, threaten her, and make sure she leaves you alone." Silas smirked, but his voice seemed serious enough to make her tense body relax a little, which was enough for him.

**~X~**

"So, do you want to explain what's going on here?" Stefan had asked them as soon as they entered Caroline's dorm room. He looked angry, no doubt, as he had been forced from his home by his evil doppelgänger torturer.

"Well, in a nutshell, Amara's crazy, very much alive, and out there impersonating Katherine." Silas explained, gesturing at Katherine, who had already made herself comfortable on one of the beds. Stefan stared at the two of them for a minute, clearly trying to figure those two out, before clearing his throat and continuing with his questions.

"So, why are we here again?"

"Amara may mistake you and Elena for us, and things may escalate from there, to put it lightly, because frankly, I have no idea what she's capable of now. Being stoned and the anchor to a hellish purgatory probably would have definetley left her unhinged. I would know." Silas folded his arms, ending the torrent of questions.

"Actually," Stefan shifted his foot from one to the other, looking slightly guilty. "Qetsiyah did a spell to make Bonnie the anchor."

"You're telling me this now shadow self?! This changes everything! The swap could have given away our location!" Silas was shocked, incredulous, and even a little angry, although he knew he didn't have a right to be when he had been tormenting and untrustworthy to the group. Stefan took a wary step back, terror looming on his features.

"Silas, calm down! She knows now, we can't do anything about it." Katherine suddenly pulled Silas away, which made him realise that he had been practically backing a terrified Stefan into the wall, had been standing only about a metre away from him.

He sighed and closed his eyes. There was _something_ about her that made him just relax and happier somehow, no matter what.

"Fine, sorry," He said to Stefan, who just nodded and edged away from the wall, hovering near another bed several feet away.

"Where's Elena?"

"I texted her, she should be coming up with Caroline." Stefan replied, now frowning at them. He obviously knew now from Silas' behaviour that there was something there with them, and his puzzled thoughts on what matched Silas' own. He didn't know if they were together, just one-night stands, or even if she loved him. He made a mental note to ask her as delicately as possible later. The door clicked open and Elena came in. She looked slightly surprised when she saw all of them.

"Hey guys, Caroline is right behind me." She pointed at the door. Silas frowned at the way she smiled at him. Did she think he was Stefan? He pushed into her mind, but was met with a blank wall. If he put force into it he could shatter it, but there was no way Elena could put up a wall like that, she wasn't old enough and didn't have the mental capacity. He didn't know how Amara had found them, or how she knew Elena was coming up, but he didn't want to find out. He turned to Stefan and very subtly shook his head, a motion he hoped Amara was too far away to see. Stefan nodded slightly, indicating he got the message and stepped backwards. He pulled out his phone and started tapping, probably texting Elena a warning, and Silas stepped in front of Katherine protectively, ignoring her confused expression.

"Okay, we'll go register, don't tell anyone where we're going." Silas took Katherine's hand and pushed her ahead of him out the door. As he did so, he removed his pocket knife from his pocket and thrust it home into Amara's stomach before she realised what was happening all in the same second. She fell to the floor, grasping what of the knife handle that hadn't gone into her, gurgling. Silas shoved a shocked Katherine out the door.

"Run!" He went to follow her as she ran down the corridor, as fast as she could in her heels, but Amara stood up, snarling, obviously still in pain, and threw him into the wall, cracking several of his ribs in the process, then kicked Stefan violently away into a bed, smashing it as he attempted to vamp-run at her. She yanked out the knife, splattering blood all over the floor and her clothes, and stabbed it into Silas' arm a few inches away from the shoulder, and right through it, pinning him to the wall, and distracting him with the blasts of pain that were exploding down his arm. She reached out to Stefan and snapped his neck before he could get up, then approached Silas, a sweet smile on her face, as he was struggling to ease the knife out of his arm.

"We'll be together again, Silas, we're meant to be. I'm your angel, remember?"

"You're crazy." he muttered, trying to move away, but she knelt in front of him, the sweet smile falling away. She was obviously annoyed by his comment, and gently took his face in her hands, then twisted it in a sharp, sudden motion.

He was out before he could even feel the pain.

**~X~**

"Silas?"

Someone was shaking him, stirring him out of the never-ending darkness. Memories, bits and pieces in random order came back to him... Amara hacking at his arm viciously with a knife... Stefan thrown backwards into a bed... Katherine running down the corridor, looking over her shoulder as he was tugged away from the door...

That last one snapped him out of it, and he opened his eyes. Everything looked blurry for a moment, someone was tapping at his face, their head tilted, examining him. Then he blinked and everything came into focus. Stefan was kneeling in front of him, smirking at him innocently, and the tapping ceased.

"Uurgh," was all that came out of his mouth. There was a sharp ache in his neck, and a persistent burning pain in his left arm. When the ache dulled, he turned his head toward his arm. Blood soaked his sleeve, and was still dripping sluggishly down his arm and onto the floor, collecting into a puddle. His knife handle stuck out at an awkward angle from his arm, and he could feel the blade inside him, poking out his skin and into the wall. He turned back to Stefan, agitated.

"Really? You couldn't have removed it?"

"You stuck me in a quarry for three months. I think that qualifies as a reason not to." Stefan still bore that annoying, self-righteous smirk that Silas hoped he himself had never had.

"Dick." Silas said, removing the knife with one smooth tug and grunting in pain. He dropped the knife, his hands now sticky with blood.

"But, you have a point."

Stefan laughed and extended a hand to him, which Silas used to pull himself up off the floor. Then suddenly, as he looked around the battered room, all those bits and pieces came together in his mind.

"Katherine!" He made for the door, desperate to find her, but Stefan stopped him.

"She'll be long gone! I texted Damon, Elena's safe, but Amara may have gone after Katherine, and they'll be far away by now. We have no hope of catching them."

"All the more reason to look for her." Silas shoved Stefan away angrily and walked out the door. If Amara so much as touched Katherine, she would be wishing that she had stayed entombed in stone. Stefan followed him as he barged outside to the carpark. His car was gone. That left him in a fuming rage. Amara must have stolen his keys, which meant she definetley had been pursuing Katherine, or was just annoying him.

"Bitch!" He yelled hoarsely, making several nearby students jump, and then stare at the horrific sight of him covered in blood.

"Fake blood for acting class." Silas pointed at the shirt and nodded dramatically, making Stefan laugh again.

"Get in my car. We'll go home and figure something out."

"But my car was better." He argued in a plaintive voice.

"Hey, be grateful I'm even allowing you to get into a car with me!" Stefan got in the drivers seat, and Silas sat next to him. He looked at Stefan closely as he started the engine and drove out the carpark. When he first arrived in Whitmore, he noticed Stefan was a lot happier and care-free, not at all the brooding, love-sick idiot he had thrown into that quarry all those months ago. And he knew why.

Caroline Forbes.

With all of that positive energy, that glowing light that had Klaus enraptured, no wonder Stefan was attracted to her too. And as much as Silas hated to admit it, Stefan deserved love from someone who would give it to him unconditionally, and Caroline was head-over-heels in love with him anyway, and more than prepared to give it to him. Besides, Silas needed something to do, occupy himself whilst Katherine was AWOL, and match-making seemed the perfect option.

He turned to Stefan and cleared his throat.

"What?" Stefan asked, eyes still glued to the road.

"That bright young vampire, Caroline is it? She's in love with you." Silas said matter-of-factly. Stefan swerved off the road suddenly, looking shocked. He braked, then continued driving.

"How do you-? Oh yeah, psychic thing." Stefan chewed his lip. After a few minutes of tense silence he spoke again, rather reluctantly, but his voice was laced with curiousity.

"Really?"

Silas nodded. "A blind man could see it. You should go out with her, she makes you happier, I don't care _what_ the doppelgänger prophecy says." he added vehemently, momentarily taking his mind off Katherine. Stefan smiled wistfully, taking in his words, then chuckled.

Silas was confused. "What are you laughing at?"

"If someone told me I would be getting love advice from the most powerful supernatural being alive who tortured me a few months ago, I would never have believed them." Stefan grinned, looking over at him.

Silas just smiled back. "You know what Stefan? Neither would I."

**«X»**

Katherine woke up in a pitch-black room, the only source of light was the tiny shards of light sprinkling in from the covered windows. She tried to sit up, but found she already was; her wrists and waist were restrained, and she was sitting in a chair. She struggled with them for a moment, before giving up on something she couldn't see. She tried to remember how she gotten here, but when she concentrated on the details of Amara grabbing her, her head started pounding. It hurt. A lot. Her mouth was dry, and she could sense cool air on her feet, meaning her shoes were gone. Faintly, she heard someone walking closer, and closer, and she panicked, struggling harder to break her restraining bonds. It must have been Amara, since she had been the one who had charged at her and knocked her out, by slamming her head brutally into the wall-

_Ooh! Don't think about that! _She scrunched up her nose and closed her eyes in pain as a splitting headache resonated around her skull. The lights suddenly flickered on, and she ducked her head away, shying away from the sudden brightness as her headache worsened. She slowly opened them as the pain faded, and came face to face with Amara. There was something eerie in her expression, something she hadn't seen before in her or Elena. Something truly insane. Her hair was straight like Elena's, it fell to her shoulders and she wore a simple t-shirt and jeans with _Katherine's _high heels! If Katherine hadn't like her before, she definetly hated her now.

"Good! You're up!" Amara beamed, a malicious glint in her eyes. She approached Katherine, who couldn't do anything but struggle even more.

"And you stole my shoes. I can see why Qetsiyah hated you." Katherine croaked out, managing a small smirk. Amara's fake smile dropped from her face, the mask falling away. Katherine could practically _see _the hatred, the pain, the crazy lurking there, just waiting to emerge, and she shuddered at the thought of it.

"You stole my boyfriend." she snapped back, clenching her hands.

"Hey, you gave him up, and," Katherine held up a finger, ignoring the pain in her wrist. "It's been like, fifty years! Get over it, he moved on. What, did you think he was going to do? Pine for you for the rest of his life? I mean, he moved on from Qetsiyah didn't he?" She added, smiling smugly, feeling a tiny surge of victory at the flash of guilt on Amara's face.

"Well, he is isn't he? Do you really think he would like you if you didn't look like me? You're my replacement." Amara shot back, leaning forward. There was an air about her that made Katherine terrified, even more scared than Klaus made her.

"What are you going to do with me?" She tried to hide her nervousness, as she wiggled in the seat, trying to get free.

Amara smiled, and it was a calm smile. A smile that Katherine knew very well because it was one of innocence that she had worn so long ago, and one Elena still wore.

And that scared Katherine the most.

"I'm going to play a game." She said, lacing her fingers. Her voice had dropped to a calmer level too. A more of a cat-that-got-the-cream level.

"You know all about games don't you Katherine? You and your Salvatores, pitting them against one another. The Michealsons, driving a wedge between the two of them, but that's just what you do. You toy until you destroy. But here's the thing," Amara delicately ran her hand through Katherine's hair, who recoiled from her touch. She badly wanted Silas here, to melt into his arms and forget today, forget all of it.

"So do I." She breathed into her ear. "We're one of a kind, you and me. I created you, my blood runs through your veins, you wouldn't exist if _I_ hadn't taken the immortality elixir, and Silas wouldn't have fallen for you. And you know it. Don't you?" Amara walked around Katherine's chair and stood behind her, still toying with her hair. Katherine swallowed back the tears she could feel stinging at the backs of her eyes.

"You're insane." She whispered, leaning to the side away from her. Amara grabbed her hair, yanking her head back against the head rest. Katherine yelled out in pain.

"You'll be wishing to be put out of your misery when I'm finished with you." Amara released her and started rummaging through Katherine's jacket. She pulled out her phone from the inside pocket and unlocked it. Katherine mentally kicked herself for not putting a password on there.

"Let's see, who should we text first? Oh, not Silas. Stefan, maybe? No, Silas could pretend to be him. Caroline? Oh I know, Matt. He has nice eyes, don't you agree?" Amara smirked, tapping at the phone. Katherine tried to keep her face blank, she had never admitted it, but she did like Matt. And sometimes Caroline. They were some of the only people who had ever been nice to her.

"Ooh I know! Let's add Nadia to the list. Isn't she your daughter?"

Katherine blanched in horror. How did she know about Nadia?

"Leave her alone." She whispered, clenching her hands into fists in anger.

"Yes, we'll definetley have Nadia, and," Amara chewed her lip in indecision as she scrolled through the phone. "Ah! Elijah! He cares about you, doesn't he?" Amara's eyes shone with satisfaction.

Katherine rolled her eyes, trying to hide her growing frustration. "If you mean choosing his brother over me, then yes, he absolutely _adores_ me!" She exclaimed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Amara smiled at her just as sarcastically, before tapping the phone again.

"Let's see, how about 'I have Katherine in the Whitmore underground cellars, come alone or she dies'?" Amara asked rhetorically, showing the sent messages to Katherine, before throwing the phone to the ground and smashing it with the heel of Katherine's shoe.

"Hey! That was new today!" Katherine shouted at her. Amara shrugged, that innocent smile back on her face.

"Is it more important than your life?"

**«X»**

"Is there a witch that can find her?" Silas demanded, throwing a chair at the living room wall in the Boarding House. Bonnie looked shaken up, and even a little angry at his questions.

"There is one, but she's in Whitmore, and I'm not sure if she would do it. But why should I help you? You killed my dad."

Silas smiled grimly. "Then I'll make you help me." He turned on his heel and stormed back out again. At this point he would do anything to get Katherine back. He could hear Stefan following him, then rather slowly, Bonnie and Damon, who told Elena to stay with Jeremy in case Amara wanted her.

"Shotgun!" He yelled, hopping in the drivers seat.

Stefan mumbled something under his breath along the lines of "It's not fair." and got in next to him, whilst Damon and Bonnie got in the back. Silas broke traffic laws, and made record timing zooming along the roads at the speed of light.

When they arrived he turned to Bonnie, who was fixing him with a hateful glare.

"Okay, where is she?"

"What, so you can threaten or kill her? No way, and besides, we're not even friends." Bonnie folded her arms. Silas sighed heavily. She'd asked for it, he had to make her change her mind. He stormed back up to the dormitory, where he found Caroline standing in the middle of all the mess, picking up bits of broken bed and throwing them into a pile. His blood had already been scrubbed from the wall, and his knife was nowhere in sight. She stopped and turned around when Silas come in.

"Oh hey! You'll never believe this, someone trashed our room! Could you help?"

She thought he was Stefan. How convenient. Silas stormed up to her and grabbed her neck, just as the others came in. Caroline scrabbled for breath as he plunged his hand into her chest to get to her heart. She froze, eyes widening in fear. Everyone else looked horrified.

"Now Bonnie, you want to change your mind before her heart goes out the window? It might cause a bit of a disturbance with the other students."

Caroline was making choking and squeaking sounds, trying to say something. Bonnie instantly backed down, fear flashing in her eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you! Come with me."

He squeezed her heart tighter to make a point and began compelling Caroline, since Bonnie being half-dead meant he couldn't compel her to help, so he couldn't rely on her.

"Listen carefully Care Bear," he released his grasp on her neck, the other hand clutching her heart. "If I call you and tell you that Bonnie has failed to find Katherine, I want you to stake yourself in the heart. You got me?"

She nodded, whilst Stefan shoved Silas away from her, looking livid, hugging a shuddering Caroline.

He just shrugged. "I just needed some back-up, since I've been betrayed most of my life. Not that any of you would know what that was like."

**~X~**

"Ahh! It just makes me so happy I'm not nineteen and stupid." Silas said as he hopped down the stairs, close on Bonnie's heels. She rolled her eyes as she pushed the back door to the café open and looked around the room.

"All right, Bonnie. Where's your little witch friend?"

"Liv Parker. She's in one of my classes and she's not my friend. I looked her up, found out she works events catering. This is a total shot in the dark." Bonnie nodded to a blonde girl with her hair in a side ponytail on the other side of the room, cleaning a long table that had just been used for food, and glancing occasionally at an oven.

"Well, I'm feeling lucky." Silas muttered, rubbing his hands together gleefully. Finally, his chance to save Katherine, right in front of him. He nodded at Bonnie, who grumbled something under her breath and approached the girl.

"Hey," she said cautiously.

"This room is off-limits." Liv replied, still wiping the counter.

"Look, under normal circumstances, I'd probably try to warm up to you, be your friend, or something, but I'm kind of under a time crunch, and I need your help." Bonnie explained quickly.

"Am I supposed to know you?"

"We're in sociology together. I'm Bonnie. My grams, Sheila Bennett, use to teach here, occult studies." Bonnie stepped closer to the girl.

"Never heard of it. Or her. So..." Liv trailed off, sounding bored.

"I know you're a witch. I saw you spin that pen this morning."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Liv said quickly, finally meeting Bonnie's gaze. She didn't sound too convincing from where Silas was standing.

"You don't have to be scared. I used to be one too."

"Yeah. No. Try the campus Coven Club or something." Liv pushed past her to get to the oven.

Bonnie grabbed her arm. "I really need your help." she pleaded desperately.

"Even if I wanted to help, I couldn't. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just some freak, okay? Now leave me alone." Liv made to leave the room, but Silas stepped out of the shadows. He wasn't letting her get away.

"You're going to help my little friend here." Silas snapped, compelling her. "Do I need to say it slower?"

**~X~**

Silas and Bonnie laid out a map onto the table and arranged candles around the room, whilst the others locked the doors and blocked the windows from any outside view.

"Vampires are real. Okay. That makes sense. Actually, that makes no sense." Liv was sitting up straight in the chair, looking shocked.

Silas glared at her. "Immortals exist aswell."

Liv looked confused. "Is there a difference?"

Silas really didn't like this girl. "Immortals don't have-" he began, but Bonnie interrupted him.

"Concentrate. Forget about the vampires. And the immortal. Focus on tapping into your power, listen to the sound of your heart beating, the sound of your lungs filling with air." she took the seat next to her as she began to demonstrate.

"How long is this going to take?" Damon asked, sounding bored. Silas didn't know why he was here, if all he was doing was making snide comments. Damon didn't even like Katherine.

"For a newbie witch to learn a complicated spell under massive stress? I have no idea. Depends on her power." Silas was getting agitated.

"Repeat after me: Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinem." Bonnie accentuated each word clearly and slowly.

"Wait. What?" Liv looked completely lost.

"Just relax." Bonnie told her.

Bonnie started repeating the spell again, and a few seconds behind, Liv followed after her, closing her eyes. Silas then handed her a tissue with Katherine's blood on it. She'd cut her hand a few days ago and he had forgotten all about it until now.

"Now keep your eyes closed and use the blood to find Katherine." Bonnie instructed.

"I have no idea what she looks like." "You don't have to."

Liv nodded, then closed her eyes again, holding the blood-stained tissue over the map. "Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinem." A cool and steady breeze picked up in the room, ripping at the edges of the map gently. Silas smiled, it was working, and soon he could find Katherine.

As Liv continued on with the spell, candles ignited behind her and electricity sparked out of the light and power outlets. A candelabra dropped from the roof and smashed into the floor behind them.

"Is that a good sign?" Damon asked snidely, but it didn't cover up his anxiety.

"I can't do this." Liv dropped the tissue and stood up.

"Just concentrate. Try again!" Bonnie exclaimed, looking over at Silas nervously, who was about to lose his temper. He waggled his phone warningly at her.

"I can't do this! Don't you get it? I've done horrible things. I've set buildings on fire, I've hurt people. I can't control any of it." Liv pushed past Bonnie, but Silas grabbed her arm.

"Sit down. You have to find her, or I will kill you." he threatened. He couldn't lose Katherine. Not ever.

"Look, I've done bad things too okay. Okay, I've broken windows; I've set more fires than I can count." Bonnie pleaded, moving Liv away from Silas.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she snapped, looking stressed.

"I'm saying I learned how to control it. I can teach you the same thing." Bonnie took out her phone, pulled up a picture of Caroline and showed Liv it.

Liv shrugged. "Why are you showing me her?"

"She's my best friend. I've known her my whole life and _her_ life is literally in your hands. If you refuse, then he," she pointed at Silas, "Is going to compel her to kill herself."

Liv's face softened in sympathy. "Okay, but if I go all Carrie and burn the school down, it's on you."

"Okay." Bonnie nodded and smiled at her in relief.

Liv sat down and picked up the tissue again. She took a deep breath, and recited the spell calmly and slowly. The cool breeze returned, and the candles lit up again, shooting about a foot up in the air. Silas felt his spirits lifting. It was like he was coming out of a dark tunnel and into the light, and he finally felt that he could breathe again.

Suddenly Liv stopped speaking and opened her eyes. She looked rather proud of herself, which made Silas in turn very hopeful.

"I think I found her."

**Thanks for reading, sorry I haven't updated, I was on holiday and didn't have a computer. Please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own tvd or the characters, they belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith.**

**Warning: Some scenes may be distressing and violent to some readers.**

The only thing keeping Katherine calm was the thought that Silas would find her. He had to, and she knew he would, there was no question about it. He was the only hope she had left.

Especially since Elijah and Nadia were sitting across from her, chained to chairs, compelled into not yelling for help.

Amara had shown no mercy.

"Are you alright, mother?" Nadia asked, twisting and shunting her arms, trying to free them. She looked barely there; Amara had injected her with vervain, snapped her neck and then laced the ropes and wooden stakes buried in her arms with more vervain, keeping her wounds open with it to keep it in her system. Katherine warmed a little when Nadia said _mother_. It was the first time Nadia had acknowledged her as that, the first time she'd even spoken to her in weeks.

Katherine nodded, trying in vain to ignore Elijah's presence, even though he had been knocked out with vervain. Clearly Amara saw him as a threat and had over-dosed him upon arrival, since he was twice as strong as Nadia.

"So, let me get this straight. Silas' ex is still alive, Qetsiyah faked her death, was the anchor to the Other Side and stone for two thousand years, looks like you and wants Silas back." Nadia said, her voice strained.

"In a nutshell? She's crazy."

"She heard that." Amara snapped angrily, coming back into the room, holding a glass, a tube, and a needle. Katherine's mouth went dry with intense unease. She had a strong suspicion as to what it was for. And she didn't like it, not one bit. The tense silence was broken by a groaning and a rattling. Elijah looked shocked for a moment, staring at the wooden ropes sizzling and sawing at his hands and the wood driven into his arms and chest as he fought them, before he seemed to realise he couldn't get out.

"How-? You attacked me... Katerina, why?" he squinted at Katherine, not yet able to see she was also restrained. His voice was slurred slightly, tinted with betrayal.

"That was actually me. I'm the _much _prettier original version," Amara hopped forward, a large, fake smile plastered onto her face.

Elijah's face was hilarious. His eyebrows were arching up into his hair, his lips opening in shock.

"Hi, I'm Amara. Silas' one true love who he ditched Qetsiyah for."

"You wish." Katherine muttered. Nadia sniggered and Elijah still looked shocked.

Amara grabbed the needle and tube. "I know all about blood. I have to drain the blood out of humans because I don't have the added snazz of fangs that you do." she mimed biting someone's neck. "Plus, I don't like to get messy." she smirked evilly, a smirk Katherine had recognised before only on herself.

"Why are you telling us this? I have somewhere to be." Katherine remarked as snarkily as she could but it came out slow and sluggish. She felt so tired. She wanted to sleep and sleep, and never wake up. It was only for Nadia, who she refused to abandon again that she was hanging onto conciousness for now.

"Well, I'm going to play a game, like I said. I'm going to drain you of some of your blood, weakening you so I can compel you to play Truth or Dare. What do you think?" Amara grinned excitedly, jumping up and down. She grabbed the needle and tube and the glass and approached Katherine. She set the glass onto the sink next to her, the type found in dentist's attached to the chair that Katherine hadn't even realised was there. Amara hadn't set this up. There was a fridge, more chairs, and a tray of test tubes on the other side of the room, that Amara didn't even seem to need. She had completely ignored them. This place had been used for something else. And recently. Doctor Wes, maybe? Katherine didn't want to know.

Amara laced the tube between her hands, gripping it, then inserted the needle attached to it into Katherine's arm, searching for a vein. Elijah struggled even harder against his restraints.

"Amara, let her go! She hasn't done anything, please, if my brother finds out what you're doing-"

"I can handle your brother easily enough thank you very much. He's too scared of dying. And of Silas, who I happen to share some similarities with such as mind control." Amara interrupted coldly, jabbing the needle at a slight angle further into Katherine's arm.

"Ow! Watch it!" she yelped, trying to squirm away.

"Leave her alone!" Nadia lurched forward, weakly tugging at the ropes which cut through her skin like a knife through butter. She didn't seem to mind though.

"Ah! Found it." Amara muttered smugly, taping it onto Katherine's shoulder. Katherine forced herself to look. The blood was flowing smoothly from her arm down the tube and dripping into the glass, a dark stab of red against the dim lights. She knew how Wes felt when she did this to him, watching the life drain away from him, drop by drop. Her sight clouded over for a moment, and she felt as though she was going to faint. After about two pints filled the glass, Amara removed the needle and looked at Katherine smugly.

"So, Katherine. Truth or Dare?"

Katherine gritted her teeth, feeling the compulsion push the word out of her mouth before she could think twice about it. "Dare."

Amara smirked mischeviously. Katherine swallowed, instantly regretting her decision. _Uh oh. Wrong choice._

"I dare you to tell Elijah your true feelings about him."

Elijah looked sick and Nadia just looked as though she wanted to poke out Amara's eyes.

Katherine thought that was honestly what Elijah deserved, but she still didn't want her feelings spilling out in an undignified and embarrassing way.

Katherine sighed, avoiding everyone's eyes. They wouldn't be prepared for this. "Since you came back, I feel... trapped. Like, I'm cornered because you could tell Klaus where I am at any moment and you would make me feel insulted and betrayed because, I have always put all of my trust into you, and somehow it's _my _fault, that's the way I feel when you look at me," Katherine closed her eyes to blot out the tiny worm of guilt coiling in her gut at the look on his face, but Amara's compulsion was prodding her onwards, the torrent of words gushing out, her feelings slicing and hurting him.

"You think I'm still the seventeen year old girl I once was. That I'm still Katerina. But I'm not, because of you and Klaus, hunting me because I wanted to live. You _ruined _me. My ability to trust and love, without a second thought. You pretend you're a hero, but you save who you want to save and drop them meaninglessly when they don't live up to your expectations. Katerina could love you, but I can't, and I just want you to let go of her, it's been five hundred years, and she's long gone, she's not buried under my Katherine façade, I _am_ Katherine. And Katerina's never coming back, because she could forgive, and I can't-I _won't_ forgive you Elijah, you abandoned me for your traitorous brother who doesn't know what family means. Five centuries, wasted, on the run. It's a lot to forget." Katherine finished, taking a deep breath. Amara looked very pleased, Nadia looked stunned, and Elijah looked as though he wished the ground would swallow him up.

"Did that hurt? Being forced to endure your loved one hating you? As she stomped all over your heart?" Amara leant in, inches away from Elijah. He looked away, refusing to answer her.

"I asked you a question," she snapped, "Did that hurt?" she pronounced each word slowly and clearly, compelling him.

"Yes." Elijah muttered, which Katherine took a surprising amount of glee from.

"Join the pity party, I have no sympathy for you, I've endured far worse." Amara straightened up, and suddenly stabbed the needle into Katherine's vein again before Katherine's blood-deprived brain could make sense of how she got there. Everything was blurred around the edges, and was moving slightly slower. "Sorry," Amara smirked sarcastically as the blood dripped from her again, pooling into the already half-full glass container.

"Remind me not to take too much, I'll just let it keep sucking the life from you, I do tend to be rather forgetful." she added offhandedly. Katherine felt her heart race in fear and tried to calm down. Any movement could stimulate the blood loss from her body further. Amara was going to kill her! She wasn't surprised, when she thought about it, Amara hated her and wanted Silas all to herself. Nadia looked livid, but couldn't seem to move very much, or was afraid to try.

"Okay, let's see what fire does to vampires." Amara raided through the drawers, rummaging around until she pulled out a box of matchsticks. She deftly struck one on the side of the box, and held it up playfully, the bright, flickering flame dancing down the wooden stick.

"This should be fun." she grinned maliciously. Amara teasingly walked over to Nadia, and held the flame near her sleeve, inching it towards her to spark fear. From Nadia's pinched and worried face, it was working. Katherine closed her eyes, not wanting to see her daughter burn and die so painfully. Never had she hated anyone more than Amara, not even Elena. Suddenly, Nadia jerked her head upwards towards the door. Katherine felt a spring of hope dance inside her. Could she hear people?

"There's something out there." she whispered hoarsely. Amara sighed in disappointment, blew out the match and walked over to Nadia, staring at her with a compelling gaze.

"Can you hear someone out there?"

"Yes." Nadia spat out at her.

Amara ground her teeth together in irritance, and flounced across the room, grabbing a sharp silver scalpel from the table on the other side of the room, before storming out the door. Several tense seconds passed, where Elijah looked, for the first time Katherine had ever seen him look, like his feathers had been ruffled.

"I'm not sorry I said those things, you know. You needed to hear them, and you need to stop yearning for a dead girl." Katherine croaked out. Her head felt fuzzy and light, like it had been stuffed with cotton wool, and she couldn't concentrate on anything. She didn't wait for Elijah's reply and bent down to her shoulder, twisting it round and up towards her face, trying to remove the needle, blurry on the details, but she _knew _ that she had to get out. She always did. She was a survivor. After many futile efforts, she finally managed to grasp the tape between her teeth and slowly and painfully peeled it off over several agonising minutes. The needle fell out of place, still dangling from her arm, and she could feel it probing through her skin. The blood had stopped pumping out of her arm and she leaned back against the chair, exhausted from merely doing that due to her lack of blood, but couldn't help feeling triumphant against Amara all the same.

Suddenly, there was an almighty crashing sound, and a yell from outside their prison that even Katherine could hear. Several wet thumps of skin against skin followed and someone groaned in pain. Katherine lit up in hope. They were going to be saved!

_About time. _She grumbled to herself. Nadia had her neck craned towards the door, eyes gleaming with interest and Elijah just looked tired, head tilting to the side like he was about to fall asleep. Katherine jumped when she heard a loud _crack! _on the door, which dented slightly in response, as though someone had been thrown into it. Then, there was a scuffling sound moving away from the door, and loud, quick footsteps faded into the distance. Someone was running away. The door creaked open, and Katherine blinked several times, and squinted to see who it was.

Glorious relief shot through her veins like adrenaline when she saw Silas marching towards her, blood dripping from his nose and staining his shirt, but still looking determined and unhurt at the same time. He stripped the ropes off her hands and she instinctively rubbed her sore wrists, before leaning into him. He carried her off the chair and kissed her hands almost worshipfully.

"Nadia." she whispered, but Stefan was already there, tugging out the stakes from her daughter's arms and untying her, before moving towards Elijah, who was just staring at them, with a detectable trace of sadness in his eyes. Nadia frowned at them slightly.

"I'll be outside, I hate this place." she muttered, stalking out the door. Katherine kissed Silas, and smiled at him.

"So, how did you find me?"

"Torturing Caroline and a locator's spell from a newbie witch, that's how." Stefan said tersely, ripping the last of Elijah's bonds away from him in anger. Silas sighed, "Would you all have helped me if I hadn't?"

Stefan shrugged. "Maybe, but it wouldn't have been for you." he replied, before walking out the door.

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" he asked her, looking angry. Katherine nodded, "Mmm hmm, but I just lost a little blood, I need to get some fresh air."

She looked up at him, her fists clenching his jacket. "Did she get away?"

The empty, tense silence that followed gave her the dreaded answer. She brushed past him, glaring at Elijah, before leaving.

The next time she and Amara crossed paths would be hell on Earth.

**~X~**

They were in the living room of his apartment and she was rapidly drinking her way through Silas' bourbon, trying to calm her anger over Amara's escape. Silas still looked shaken, as though the very presence of Amara shook him to his very core. He was pacing relentlessly in front of her, a sign he was worried, since Stefan seemed to have gotten it from him. He suddenly stopped and turned to face her, as though he was about to do something he would regret.

"I can't protect you. Amara's still out there, and I can't protect you." he stated firmly. He looked broken and upset, and Katherine was mortified.

"Of course you can! You rescued me didn't you? You've saved me from Klaus! Where is this coming from?" Katherine exclaimed, slamming her cup of bourbon onto the table.

"She's insane Katherine! She will continue to come after us, after Nadia, anyone close to you because she's jealous that I'm with you." he swallowed, head bowed down. Katherine instantly knew where he was going with this. She had never felt more afraid.

"No, I know what you're going to do, please Silas, don't do this to me!" she pleaded, standing up and walking over to him.

"You think I wanna do this? I don't, Katherine, but she will kill you! I can't be selfish with you if it means you could die!" he shouted, making her flinch.

"Which is why I have to let you go." his voice lowered to a broken, ragged whisper, as though the words were being torn out of his throat.

In that moment, Katherine thought her heart had literally shattered. Her world turned upside down. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. She took his face in her hands.

"Please don't leave me. Not now, I-I don't want to live without you, I love you, you can't do this to me, Silas!" she cried out, feeling tears burn her eyes, then realised what she had just said. He had frozen, as though he had stopped listening at some point to her. He grabbed her hands, which were still on his face, and he held them there.

"What, did you say?" his voice came out quiet, but he sounded like a kid being giving a key to a sweet store. Katherine cocked her head to the side, trying to play dumb. "What?"

"You love me?" he asked in wonder.

Of course he'd heard. He'd probably _only_ heard those three little words, stuffed with so much meaning.

She gulped and tried to remove her hands, but he wouldn't let her.

"Katherine."

"You know, I was kidnapped and tortured today, I need some rest." she pulled back her hands and tried to push past him, but he grabbed her waist and wouldn't let her pass.

"You know you can trust me. Please."

She turned back around. His arms were still locked around her waist.

"What's the point? So I love you, you were still going to break up with me. You've made it perfectly clear you want to stay away from me." Katherine tried to sound hurtful, but she just ended up sounding snivelly and pathetic.

"You know I am doing this for you." he whispered.

"_Don't _do it! You aren't doing me any favours by abandoning me, so _stay with me_." she grabbed his hand and held it to her chest.

"Silas."

"I love you, but you alive and being away from me is better than your untimely death." he whispered, clenching his hand against her chest where her heart would be. She felt a tingling sensation where he touched her skin, as always, and she revelled in it this time because this could be the last time he ever did that. Right now though, it felt as though he had ripped out her heart and crushed it as she watched.

"See, _that_ is what makes this so hard. You would rather us stay apart, miserable, for years, then be with me out of a rare chance Amara would kill me, even though it would have been the happiest time of my life! Uurgh, Damon _totally_ got that from you!" she tried to blink back the tears, but they kept coming. He smiled and smoothed back her unruly curls. "What should I do? Do you want the alternative to staying alive? Survival is what you want most of all isn't it? Do you want me standing over your grave, knowing I could have done something?" he let go of her hair, smiling sadly.

"You _can_ do something! You can protect me, I'll-I'll stay here! Here with you, we can figure it out, like you said, I'm a survivor." Katherine was practically on her knees. She hadn't been this distraught over a man in a long time.

He smoothed his hand down her face, making her shiver. "I'm sorry. But it'll work out, you'll see. It's just not our time right now."

Katherine nodded. "Fine," she shoved him away angrily. "You're just like the rest of them, I should have known."

Silas paled at that. "Katherine, please-"

"Don't expect to see me again. Goodbye, Silas."

And she turned, and walked out the door, her heart aching for the life she had always wanted and could have had.

**Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. :-)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I don't own tvd or the characters, they belong to Julie Plec and L.J Smith.**

**Thanks for reading!**

When Silas woke up, he found his face stuck to a table, a blinding migraine shooting around his skull, and an empty bottle of scotch next to him. He lifted his face off the table and slowly sat up. The headache was already fading, but it was a killer one. To his surprise, he found Stefan, Damon, Matt and Jeremy standing in front of him in the bar, all looking equally amused, and immensely so.

"Please, try not to enjoy this too much." he squinted at them, pleading. He couldn't stand their humour-filled gazes drilling into him.

"What happened to you?" Stefan asked, laughing at him.

"Whatever I tell you, I bet you'll all love it anyway." Silas muttered, staring moodily at the scotch bottle. Last night was _not _a subject he ever wanted to mention again.

"My killer having a hangover? I gotta say, I _am_ loving this." Jeremy smirked, leaving with a cloth to clean the tables.

Silas rolled his eyes. "I don't want to talk about getting drunk right now."

"Why, because you broke up with Katherine?" Damon _was_ enjoying this way too much. Silas groaned in response and slumped back onto the bar. Katherine. Not what he wanted them to know, but hey, this was Mystic Falls. Everyone finds out everything in the end. He missed her already, their separation taking a heavy toll on his heart.

"Why break up with a girl after pining for her for months on end once you get her?" Matt asked, drying a mug with a towel.

"You know I can still hear you right?" Silas said, his voice muffled, raising his head again to glare at Matt.

"Well, whilst we're on the topic, why _did _you break up with her?" Stefan was still smiling, and seeing Silas' own face mocking him wasn't what he needed right now.

"Because Caroline said she slept in their dorm last night and she was acting really upset and wouldn't talk about it." Stefan added, looking at him expectantly.

"What makes you think I wanna talk about it?" Silas asked, grabbing another bottle from the bar. He would still need to be drunk if he had to listen to this conversation.

"It's therupautic. It will help." Stefan replied, frowning at Silas' bottle which was now firmly attached to his mouth and nearly half the bottle was already gone.

Silas slammed down the bottle. "It's therupautic for _you _you mean. You get to laugh at my pathetic love life history and we all know I have made some _bad _choices in _that_ department." he was already blabbering. Good. The alcohol was attacking his bloodstream.

"Well, maybe I wanna help you." Stefan walked around to get out the bar, then took a seat next to Silas.

"You?" Silas raised his eyebrows doubtfully.

Damon also seemed to agree with him. "You hate him."

Stefan tilted his head from side to side in a caught-in-the-middle gesture. Damon stepped towards them, looking incredulous.

"You told me when you got your memories back that calling him Satan was an insult to Satan."

Silas turned to Stefan, who was looking sheepish, open-mouthed. Hating him was fine, but that was over the line.

"That's so mean! I'm nice! Haven't I proved I'm nice?"

"Well, yeah-" Stefan started, but Silas cut him off.

"I'm not speaking to you. Meanie. I'm gonna go drown in ice-cream and pretend I'm still with Katherine." Silas hopped off the chair, meaning to flip Stefan off, but instead stumbled clumsily and tried to regain his dignity by balancing his weight on a nearby table.

"Oh no, he's a depressed drunk." Jeremy muttered, shoulders shaking with silent, supressed laughter.

"Shut up, Hunter." Silas pointed at him, before stumbling through the door, his yearning for Katherine growing more with each step he walked away.

**«X»**

"Stefan says he's drunk!" announced Caroline, dramatically entering the room. Katherine looked up instantly from her position on Elena's bed after stealing it when Elena left for classes. She'd done nothing but mope and stare at the plain, blue covers for two straight hours."Did he say anything else? About me?"

Caroline gave a look Katherine could only translate for sympathy.

"Well, he doesn't like insults. And, he didn't want to talk about you." she said softly, sitting down on the bed next to Katherine, who groaned and flopped back onto the bed. She felt like crying, her heart aching so much she wanted to claw it from her chest, anything to stop her overwhelming emotions, the insatiable urge to see him. Those pesky human emotions. How she hated and loved them all at the same time.

"Why did you split up, or fall out, or whatever you did?" Caroline shook her head in confusion. "No offense." she raised her hands in mock surrender at the stormy look Katherine shot her.

"It will help! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I _want _to help you. That should matter! Besides, I've got nothing better to do." Caroline said, her eyes widening in excitement. Katherine sat up, pondering. Maybe Caroline could help her. After all, she had had a thing with Klaus, and her heart broken more times than she could count from what Katherine had observed.

"Fine," Katherine rolled her eyes. "He thinks for some reason he can't protect me if-"

She cut off when the door opened and Elena and Bonnie came back in, holding books and bags slung over their shoulders. Both looked annoyed when they saw Katherine and Caroline on the bed. Katherine just sighed and crossed her arms.

"No, don't stop on our account. If what?" Elena asked, smirking. If Katherine didn't know any better, she'd say she was Amara, due to her facial expressions.

"If you don't stop butting in." Katherine snapped.

"Well, maybe Silas will be better off without you lying to him. Like always." Elena tossed her books onto her bed, narrowly missing Katherine.

"What, you think I can't change for the love of a man?" Katherine scoffed, standing up. It was starting to become a tie, her hatred for her two doppelgängers.

"I think you're just using him for protection against Klaus, who's terrified of him. What with how evil he is." It was Bonnie this time, who shot back that snarky reply.

"Some things don't change, Katherine. You're just one of them." Elena added smugly.

Katherine just felt insulted. They didn't know enough about her to judge her, her reasons behind her actions. "Maybe, you don't know me at all. Did it ever occur to you that I was with Silas because I'm in love with him?!" Everything all blurted out of her, in that one hot moment, where all that mattered was proving them wrong. And now, she couldn't take it back.

But this was Mystic Falls. Everyone finds out everything in the end. And what those three had just found out and their feelings on it were clearly expressed in their faces. Blank shock.

"Wow, the monster in love with the monster. Typical." Elena remarked, to which Katherine laughed. "Are you really going to lecture me? What about the monster you're _in love _with, Elena? Tell me, that you see that, right?" Katherine was at her most catty; jabbing at other people's emotions, bringing them to the surface.

"That's different. He doesn't torment everyone."

"Doesn't he? What about killing your brother, something you forgave him for and not me? Turning your friends mother into a vampire and tormenting your other friend by drinking from her and who knows what else? No offense Caroline," she nodded to the blonde, who had still been sitting on the bed, watching the spectacle with both fascination and amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Silas may have done some horrible things, but he has never tried to delibrately hurt me or _kill _my loved ones, which makes him a much better person than Damon ever was." Katherine lowered her voice, but her cutting words still slapped Elena in the face all the same.

"And you," she pointed at Bonnie, who jolted up in surprise. "In case you haven't noticed, I have never been your friend, so don't expect me to care about what Silas has done to anyone and don't you _dare, _tell me I'm using him! He killed your dad, and I'm sorry about that, but, what, you expect me to hate him because of that? It had nothing to do with me, I didn't ask him to kill your dad, nor did I know about it until the next day, so keep your hate to yourself unless you can come up with something that involves me." she snapped, feeling an unknown pressure release her shoulders. She had vented her anger, her frustration out on them both, pouring it out of her, needing to find _something _to give, something to help her explode.

Caroline stood up, grinning. "Whoo, whoo!" she clapped, as if proud. Bonnie, Elena and Katherine turned to her in shock as she performed her sudden crazy bout.

"What? I've made it no secret that I hate Damon." Caroline shrugged. Elena managed to look betrayed and Bonnie still bore shock on her face.

"Thanks, Caroline, now if you two will excuse me and manage to not lose your temper at the sight of me, I'm gonna go and see if my daughter's around." Katherine stepped past them to get to the door, eager to escape the impending tension in the room. She pulled out her phone as she walked down the corridor, and was halfway pressing it to her ear to call Nadia when she remembered that she had brought all her stuff back from Whitmore the previous night and had left all her clothes at Silas'. And since she had no intention of going back there, she would have to buy some new ones. She cringed outwardly at having to ask her daughter to do such a thing and brought the phone up to her ear. It went to voicemail. She sighed and scrolled down the contacts impatiently. Looked like she would either have to sneak in and take them, ask Damon or Stefan for some money and face mockery from Damon, and the look-alike of the man she loved and wasn't talking to, or get someone to steal the clothes for her. Option two seemed most viable, since she wouldn't get caught and if she called Stefan, he wouldn't mock her. She reluctantly clicked Stefan's number and pressed it to her ear again. After a few rings, he picked up.

"Katherine?"

"Hey, Stefan," she put on a sweet, innocent tone she knew would get her somewhere.

He sighed, the harsh sound rattling the speakers on her phone. "What do you want?"

"I... need more money! Pretty please! I said please, see?" she tried to take the desperation out of her voice, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Uh..." There was a shuffling and then a buzzing noise. "Now's not a good time."

She scoffed. "What are you doing, baseball with Damon?"

"No, more like 'catch the bottle drunk Silas throws at your head'. Have you heard of it? Because he's really annoying when he's in that sort of mood." Stefan sounded tired, but Katherine tensed up when she heard Silas' name, willing herself to not give into the temptation to see him.

"Nope, and I don't care, I just need some money-"

"Steffy, I want another drink. Where's my ice cream gone?" Silas slurred, slamming something empty onto a hard surface, making a loud, ringing sound.

Katherine's chest tightened at the sound of his voice. He sounded _really _drunk. And all she could think about was running her fingers through his hair.

"He. Is. Miserable. And," Stefan paused nervously. "If you don't see him, he may stuff me back in that safe, he keeps shooting me murderous looks because I insulted him."

Katherine giggled as the image of Silas scowling at his double popped into her head. It was nice that she had that effect on him, as weird as it sounded. It gave her confidence in his love for her.

"What are you doing? You should be helping me! You're my shadow self, you owe me! I gave you life!" Silas shouted, sounding closer than before. Stefan laughed, sounding half-amused and half-scared, before speaking again.

"Please?" he was practically pleading. Katherine swallowed hard. "I don't know, let me think about it. A lot happened last night. Money, please?"

"Only if you come to the Boarding House to get it and see him." Stefan said stubbornly. Katherine closed her eyes and swallowed. She really wanted to see him, but if she did, everything he'd said about splitting up would come rushing back and shatter her heart all over again. Eventually, the urge to see him won over, no matter what.

"Fine, I'll be over soon. Just, be quick, okay?"

"Thank you!" Stefan exclaimed, relieved, which Katherine had never heard in him before, and they both hung up. She spun around to head back to the exit to get the bus back, a storm of conflicting emotions.

**«X»**

Silas stumbled closer to Stefan, who was on his phone and watching him warily. He wound up on one knee and his eyesight was slightly foggy, so he spent some time groping for the wall and hauling himself up.

"Stefan... so-sorry about the... the safe, let's buy you another one!"

Stefan frowned at him, whilst Silas tried to make sense of his brain, which was too pickled by alcohol for him to understand what he said. Stefan sighed reluctantly and reached for him, slinging his arm over his shoulders, and practically carrying him to the couch.

"You're a good person," Silas muttered, trying to compliment him. "I shouldn't have ruined you. So sorry. Didn't deserve it, didn't deserve the betrayals either, bad timing, right after being dumped too." he rambled on, trying to apologise, to straighten out the sentences filling his head. From Stefan's blank expression, he had lost him.

"What do you mean 'betrayals?'"

"Oh," Silas sat up. Stefan didn't get it. Too forgiving, too compassionate. "Your brother, stealing your girlfriend. Read your mind Steffy, you didn't do anything to deserve that, no matter what you think. Those two are just selfish, you deserve Caroline. Pretty one, she is." Silas attempted to explain the jumble of thoughts floating around his head. Stefan seemed to understand a bit more, nodded, and lay Silas back down on the couch. "Okay, thanks Silas."

Silas patted his cheek drowsily, "No problem, buddy."

"Now," Stefan sat down next to him on the floor. "What happened with Katherine?"

Silas squinted at him suspiciously. "Are you still trying to get me to spill my guts? 'Cause it's not working."

"Damn," he muttered, smirking. "I got too cocky."

Silas sniggered. "You got too like me you mean, you meanie! I still haven't gotten over that insult. All I did was lie! A lot, but, I am not worse than Satan!"

Stefan sighed, changing the lighter mood into a heavier and more serious one. "I can help you, you know."

They were interrupted when the door suddenly clicked open and Caroline bounced in, all radience and sunshine lighting up the room. "Is he still drunk?" she grinned, clearly enjoying herself.

"How did you get back so fast?" Stefan frowned up at her from his seat on the floor.

She shrugged. "Vamp speed and cars are doing wonders for transport."

Silas sat up. "Ah, the pretty one has arrived!" he jumped up excitedly, only for Stefan to tug him back down again.

"Hey, Stefan, remember what I said. About her," he waggled his eyebrows at Caroline, who looked affronted. "Well, you're no ray of sunshine yourself!" she exclaimed. Of course she would take it as an insult. Silas silently laughed at her expression. "And, by the way, your girlfriend's coming up, I brought her over when I saw her at the bus stop." she added scathingly, walking over to Stefan.

Silas spluttered in shock. Katherine couldn't see him! Not like this. He fumbled around, pushing himself up, and wildly searching the room for an escape route.

"It was just a compliment, you didn't have to bring Katherine over." he widened his eyes dramatically, then crossed his arms, trying to appear nonchalant even as he scanned the room avidly for a place to hide.

"I can't see her!" he suddenly grabbed Stefan's arm in a panic, and looked at him with what he thought were puppy eyes.

"Don't ever do that again," Stefan threw him back onto the couch and stood in front of him, barring his escape.

"Why not? It's my face, you-you stole it!" Silas pouted childishly, as he swayed drunkenly from side to side.

"It looked like I was soiling myself. Not pretty." Stefan replied.

"Hey, Silas!" Caroline was next to Stefan, how had she gotten there so quickly? Vamp speed, or alcohol playing tricks on him?

_Vamp speed. _He decided, nodding to himself.

"Katherine's here." she grinned at him maliciously.

Silas grumbled lowly at her. This was going to be awkward. "I was wrong, Steffy, don't go out with that one, bit sadistic she is." he stood up and nodded at Caroline, whose eyebrows climbed up her forehead in utter shock. Stefan looked very murderous, and Caroline now looked as though something very important had happened to her, and she couldn't believe it.

"Caroline? Where's St-" Katherine had come in, but froze abruptly in the doorstep when she saw him. Silas stared at her, not daring to believe she was there, standing a few feet away from him. Unrealistically, whether he just missed her, or it was the alcohol, he felt as though it had been forever since he had last seen her, not mere hours. She glared at him and crossed her arms, and he felt something _break _inside him when she looked at him like that. He couldn't stand it and just stared right back.

Stefan leaned in close to Caroline. "It's hard to tell if they want to kill each other or rip each other's clothes off." he sniggered, causing them to break their conflicted gaze and look at him in shock. It was a remark so unlike something Stefan would say, that Silas was more surprised than embarrassed by his comment. Caroline giggled, rather hysterically, and Stefan smiled down at her, clearly pleased by her reaction. Silas stuck his tongue out at them, causing them to laugh harder, before turning back to Katherine, who was clucking her own tongue impatiently, arms folded neatly across her chest.

"So, who could use a drink from the library?" Stefan suddenly asked Caroline.

"Yes please!" she replied as they both headed off down the hall, putting on an unconvincing act of being thirsty by clutching their throats dramatically. A long, tight pause filled the room. You could probably cut the tension between the two with a knife.

"Hi," Katherine said, bursting their awkward little bubble.

"Hi." he slid his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor nervously, instantly sobering. How had Stefan done this around Elena? Granted, they were different situations, but they were still broken up all the same.

"I, uh, I need my clothes. From your place. Can I get them?" she looked just as nervous.

"Yeah, okay," he pulled out the keys from his pocket. "Let's go get them."

She nodded and walked out the door, leaving him to trail after her.

He got in the passenger seat and silently handed the keys to her, which she took without complain or question, most likely due to his ruffled appearence and slurred attitude. She kept focused on driving the entire way down, refusing to look at him, whereas he just couldn't his eyes off her. Knowing she loved him... it would be doing wonders for him, if they had still been together. His one wish come true, except he was the one standing in the way of his own happiness, because he overthought too many things. He regretted their conversation more and more and there was no way he could take last night back. But, he knew it had to be done to protect her, he just wanted there to be another way. The next half an hour was brimming with intense and volatile solitude, a silence counting down to an inevitable explosion, he couldn't help but think.

He was immensely grateful when she pulled up into the carpark, got out of the car abruptly and swung the building door open without a word. He came up behind her as she jumped the stairs two at a time and he stumbled and tripped up the them after her, still half in a drunken stupor. By the time he had gotten into his apartment, Katherine had found his suitcase and was stuffing clothes into it, clearly not bothered by the rumpled state of them.

"Katherine," Silas started, wanting to fix the situation. He missed her smile, right now he doubted he would ever see it again. "I was just trying to protect you, I didn't want to do it!"

"Then what did you want Silas, because I don't feel protected, I feel hurt instead," she snapped at him. She started fumbling around in his wardrobe. "I mean, when someone tells you they love you that _normally _means that they want to be with you forever, but what do you know? You have two crazy exes, one of whom I look exactly alike, but is mental, and one who turned you into stone, so _that_ can't mean you've got great taste!" she was becoming tearful in her sarcasm as she hurriedly squished another load of clothes into the suitcase.

"That's not fair, you know, I couldn't have known they were crazy! And what does this have to do with us?" Silas was getting frustrated and felt the incessent need to punch something.

She finally looked up at him, shocked, her eyes brimming with tears. "Maybe, the fact you wanted to break up with me over Amara, I mean, I don't know, _that _has something to do with us? Anyway, you can protect me better if we're together, so why _did_ you break up with me? Do you still have feelings for her?"

"Are you listening to yourself? You sound like an insecure, jealous teenager! Of course I don't have feelings for her, I think I've made that pretty clear." Silas snapped back. He grabbed her hand, but she tugged it back, looking furious. "Don't touch me!"

"Katherine, I love you, only you. Why all of a sudden have you got it into your head that I don't?" Silas asked, astounded; if he didn't love this woman, the Earth didn't orbit the Sun.

"I don't know, maybe I'm just an insecure, jealous teenager." she replied sullenly, zipping up the suitcase.

"Don't twist my words around like that, I'm just trying to protect you because Amara could _kill_ you, Katherine!" Silas didn't know how he could possibly make her understand the enormity of the situation.

"Yes, I know what the word means, I've performed that gruesome act before," she said bitingly, dragging the suitcase out the bedroom. "I just didn't expect you to give up so easily. I guess I loved you too much to see that."

"I guess I didn't expect that you wouldn't understand." he replied softly.

He instantly wished he hadn't said anything from the twisted look of betrayal on her face.

"_I _don't understand?! I don't know if you realise this, Silas, but I understand perfectly! I understand that Amara wants to kill me. I understand that you want to protect me, but you're doing it the _wrong way_!" she was screaming, it made him wince and he just wanted her to stop.

"I want you to be with me every single day! I want you to make me feel alive, to make me feel as though I can walk freely down down the street without Klaus breathing fown my neck, knowing you'll have my back because you love me, but you aren't going to do that because you want to _protect _me!" she had gone shrill and hysterical, and he should have seen it coming because their break up had been small and heartbreaking, but they had kept their pain confided. Now, it had exploded.

"I'm sorry." he whispered hoarsely, the only thing he think to say.

"You should only be sorry if you want to be with me," she muttered, crossing her arms. She had gone back to avoiding his eyes, gazing at the floor. "Do you?"

"Of course I do! Do you think I would have followed you everywhere if I didn't?" he exclaimed, leaning on the kitchen table.

She looked up, hopeful. "Then what's the problem?"

"Amara is crazy." he whispered desperately, putting all his faith and hope that she would believe him into that one sentence, but Katherine looked angry again, tears sparkling in her eyes. She opened her mouth to snap back her argument, but then Silas' phone went off, trilling its tune happily away in his pocket. He silently thanked the person calling, and answered the phone immediatly, avoiding a tempting glance at an annoyed Katherine.

"Hello?"

"Uh, we need your help." Stefan muttered hastily into the phone, as if he hated admitting it.

Silas sighed gratefully. The perfect distraction; if he was honest, Katherine scared him when she was cross. "Fine, I'll bite, what is it?"

"Damon's gone missing."

**Did you like the cliffhanger? Please let me know, and I hope you enjoyed this!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi, sorry for the late update, my phone broke down. :-(**

Enjoy!

"So, remind me why I have to help you again, despite my splitting headache." Silas sighed, rubbing his forehead irritably. He was seated in a plush, deep blue chair made of some scratchy, woollen material in Whitmore college common room, and the light shining directly at him through the large window opposite him, and the flipping of pages from the students behind him rapidly trying to cram for an exam wasn't helping with the intense hangover he could feel jabbing and pounding at his skull ferociously. He was never drinking again.

"I mean, what on earth happened in the hour I was out of your lives?" He added, shooting a quick glance at Katherine, whose face remained impassive. She hadn't been impressed when they'd been forced to end their argument, and he sure as hell didn't want to start it again, which was why Damon's disappearance proved to be the perfect escape.

"Wes knows that we're vampires, so compelling or attacking him won't work. He'll likely spring a trap or be on vervain, so you, our compelling, unkillable psychic with an uncanny resemblance to me will get him to tell us where Damon is. All you have to do is pretend to be me and compel him." Stefan explained, leaning forward in his own identical chair.

Silas groaned in frustration. "But I don't like Damon!"  
"I thought you'd say that, which is why I didn't divulge some interesting information that may hook you." Stefan smirked knowingly.

Silas rolled his eyes and crossed his legs. "Indulge me before I read your mind."

"The travelers are in cohoots with Wes, they're trying to do something with the doppelgangers," Stefan said. "Interested now?"  
Silas sat upright eagerly as soon as the word _travelers_ passed his doubles lips. He knew they'd be popping up again. Unfortunetly, like Qetsiyah, they didn't know when to quit. This had to be what Gregor was talking about. Why he wanted Katherine and him dead. "Lead the way, Steffy!" Silas jumped up, ignoring Elena, Caroline, and Katherine's looks of alarm.

Stefan stood up too. "Don't call me that." He muttered as he walked through the doors leading out of the room, the girls and Silas on his heels, down a long, twisting corridor milling with students, and down several flights of stairs, before heading down another corridor, only this one was dark and dingy, the stench of rot and mould hanging in the air, infused with secrets and leading to even more as Stefan peered round the corner of the corridor, silently searching for movement. He turned back round, and whispered, "This is where he experimented on the vampires. He held Damon and Elena here once, but I don't know if he's here." He looked at Silas expectantly, and jerked his head towards where he had been looking. Silas hesitantly walked over to Stefan, leaned out from where he had done, and saw a little brick archway, which through it he also saw several, long metal tables for surgery procedures lined up in a single row, shining dully as faint shadows resembling silouettes dipped in and out of the dull light emanating from somewhere down there like flickering flames, which made it hard to tell if someone really was down there. He briefly noted that Wes must have had more than one hideout; he had rescued Katherine from another one just yesterday, he recognised the equipment.

He hesitated only a moment, before padding down the stone steps as quietly as he could. He pressed himself to the wall supporting the archway, and risked a glance around and indeed, there was Wes, on the other side of the room in his now stained and grubby lab coat, cleaning his scalpals, knives, and many more instruments that Silas failed to recognise, not having a degree in being a doctor, or whatever labels modern society pinned on physicians nowadays. He looked exhausted, as though he hadn't slept in days, the beginnings of a small beard showing on his face, the combined of which made him look about ten years older than he actually was.

Silas made himself known, hands in pockets, casually walking out from his hiding place, not even attempting to hide himself; there were no more spaces to hide in, and, he really didn't need to. He was power enough to make this man cower in fear before him. Not to sound big-headed or anything, but it was kinda true.

Wes raised his eyebrows in what Silas presumed to be surprise, and maybe even a little arrogance. He pushed at the man's mind, shoving away pieces of his life away in order to burrow down to the most recent part of it. Flashes of a messy fight ensuing that very morning was cause to pick apart that memory deeper, but what really caught his eye was a particularly repetitive one; Wes liked to think about it often and so it can't have been good news. The travelers were weakening Damon and another man, then Wes jabbed a syringe into his neck and emptyed the contents into him. Whatever it was, it didn't look good.

"Can I help you?" Wes asked, causing Silas to break his hold on him in order to concentrate on the concentration.

"Yeah, I'm looking for my brother, he came up here to see Elena and I haven't heard from him. You seen him?" Silas lied quickly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other in what he hoped was a believable Stefan thing to say and do.

"No, sorry." Wes replied quickly. Too quickly.  
Silas shook his head impatiently, sucking in his breath through his teeth.

"See, I just don't believe you. You're lying." He took a step towards Wes, who then took an involuntary step backwards, wary.

"You can't compel me, I'm on vervain so save your breath." he snapped, clutching a scalpel in a white knuckled hand and pointing it at him.

"Actually, I'm not a vampire. So yes I can." Silas allowed a self satisfied smirk to spread across his face. He walked over to him, plucked the scalpel out of Wes' hand, and seized his wrist to stop him from moving. "Where's Damon?" He asked impatiently.

"In an abandoned farmers house a few miles out of Whitmore with the travelers." Wes answered, shock in every word, and hesitantly, as though the words were being ripped from him.

"What did you do to him?" Silas prodded, the syringe needle embedded in Damon's neck still raising curious thoughts.

"I injected him with a ripper virus that forces him to feed on vampires instead of humans." came the strangled reply.

Silas smirked at the thought of Damon being constantly starving for more, thirst driving him crazy, like him and Stefan had been. Although, this couldn't be good for the vampire species. What he was most interested in though, was why the travelers were working for him.

"Why are the travelers working for you?"

"They want doppelgängers or something, I don't know why." choked out Wes, not at all smug anymore. Silas released his compulsion. "Thank you, _doctor,_" he smiled widely. "You've told me enough. Now forget I was here." He turned and swiftly walked out of the room, deeply amused by Wes' horrified expression.

"I trust you heard everything!" Silas called out as he jumped up the stairs. Once he reached the top, he saw Stefan nod at him before running back down the corridor. Elena quickly followed, whilst Silas, Katherine and Caroline maintained a slow walk, not at all that bothered about rescuing Damon. Caroline then split away from them and headed up the stairs, saying she needed to study, whilst Silas followed Stefan out to his car, not eager to restart his argument with Katherine, who followed closely behind.

"I can tell you where the farmhouse is. I read his mind." Silas said, getting into the back. Elena gave him the evils as she got in next to Stefan, and Katherine made a gut-wrenching point of sitting a space away from Silas and staring out her window. Stefan shot him a look of sympathy, before peeling out the car park and onto the road.

~X~

It was the most awkward car ride ever. Tension pressed thick on him, suffocating, and filled with meaningless small talk. He felt a sharp twist in his stomach every time he so much as glanced at Katherine. He just wanted her back, but he couldn't, because he had let her get kidnapped whilst they were together, and when they were apart, she had seemed a lot safer. Besides, people could attack her to get to him, she was his one weakness. The less people that knew, the better.  
He exhaled in relief when they stopped at a gas station, Katherine's stomach getting the better of her, and practically jumped out. He and Stefan agreed to head towards the small tucker shop, whilst the girls would fill up the tank, hopefully without killing each other.

"So," Silas began conversationally as he wandered down the shop aisle, picking up bits and pieces he knew Katherine ate; raisens, chocolate, nuts, crisps, the like. "How are you and Caroline?"

Stefan jumped in alarm at the question, nearly dropping the chocolate bars in his hand. "Fine."

"Did you ask her out?"

"No."

"Why not?!" Silas exclaimed loudly, startling the couple next to him.

"Doesn't matter. Let's change the subject." Stefan muttered, dropping the bars on the counter. Silas did the same, though desperate for answers, and wondering why love just was confusing all of a sudden.

{X}

"Earth to Katherine!" an impatient voice next to her snapped, breaking her out of her trance-like stare at Silas' back.

"What?" She hissed at Elena, in no mood for chatting to the girl who ruined her life.

"Little help here?" She gestured to the gas pump, which was struggling against even her vampiric hold. Katherine sighed, and reluctantly helped Elena shove the gas pump into the car.

"Hold that for a sec, I need to check my phone for signal to call Jeremy." Elena hurried around for the door handle. As Katherine stood there, she let her mind wander to the day's events. Silas really wasn't going to relent, he just didn't get that she didn't care Amara hated her. She could be as suicidal as he had once been. But he wouldn't come back to her unless she forced him to. She smiled to herself as a plan began to unfold in her mind. She released the pump, even though the tank was only halfway full, hurried round to the bonnet, glancing at Elena, who was draped over the back seats, too focused on her phone to see her, and opened it.

A jumble of wires and piping greeted her. She didn't know where to start, it was like a tangled maze to her. She grabbed the largest pipe she could see with both hands and yanked on it as hard as she could. It took several seconds, since the material was tough, but the pipe loosened, then developed large cracks running deep along the surface. She quickly dropped the bonnet, hoping the damage was enough to stop the car. Then she could convince them to stay at a motel she saw down the road, and hopefully get Silas alone. She hurried back round to the boot just as Elena got back out of the car.

"You were supposed to fill the tank up." she sighed at Katherine in annoyance when she saw the pump back in its place.

She shrugged. "I got tired. Yet another, human trait I'm stuck with."  
Elena gritted her teeth, then huffed and turned away before she would do something she regretted, and Katherine had the satisfaction of seeing Elena as powerless as she had been.

She turned around and smiled innocently at Stefan and Silas when she heard them approaching and got in the back of the car. Silas wordlessly handed her a variety of food, whilst she smiled inwardly at the fact that he remembered what she liked.

Stefan gunned up the engine and drove about ten feet out of the station before the car started sputtering, then ground to a halt. Katherine smirked as Stefan frowned, turning the ignition on and off several times, before getting out and opening the bonnet. Elena bent over his shoulder, fretting, whilst Katherine stood to the side behind him as Silas knelt next to him and snapped out the black pipe she'd broken just before. "Hey, can you hold this for a second?" Silas held the piece out to Katherine. "Yeah." she gingerly took it, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Careful, there's grease on it." Stefan added, thumbing through his phone.

"Oh. Okay." she murmured, holding the hose closer to her to keep it sliding from her fingers.

"I have no idea how this hose broke, but we're not going to be able to go anywhere until I get a new one." Stefan said, standing up and turning away. Inspiration crashed into Katherine as she stared at the hose her hands. If she provided the perfect distraction, they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. So she quickly rubbed the hose over her pink shirt, spreading black grease all over it, then wiped some of it onto her hands. This was as good a plan as any to get Silas to stay.

"Ah, I guess I'll see if that mechanic has a spare part." Silas also stood up and looked over at her, taking back the hose. His eyes widened as he fought the urge to laugh, and Katherine feigned surprise over his reaction.

"You weren't careful at all." he grinned, getting the others attention.

"Oh my God." Elena looked as if Christmas had come early.

"What? What?" she looked down at her shirt and gasped. "Ohh! I love this shirt!"

"You loved that shirt." Stefan said, smirking at the state of her.

"Great. Awesome... that's just awesome." she groaned, pressing her hands to her face and delibrately smearing more grease onto herself.

"Now there's grease all over your face." Silas pointed at her, still laughing.

"UGH! Well, I need to change and to wash this grease off," she tugged at her dirty shirt. Then she pointed behind her, as though the idea had just occurred to her. "I saw a hotel, like, a couple streets down that way. Do you think we all should get a room, so that I can shower while we're waiting for the car?"

"No, I should probably stay here in case they finish early, but you three can go." Silas offered. He clearly was still on team 'Protect' Katherine.

"Give them your phone number. I assume that your phone does receive incoming calls, right? Or is it from the Roman era, like you?" she was flirting and she knew he couldn't help but flirt back.

"That's funny." Silas smiled. She thought he looked relieved at the fact that she was speaking to him, and immediately felt a twinge of guilt about their argument, whilst Elena and Stefan were just staring at them.

"Will you grab my bag? I think I left it in the car." She smiled and turned around, walking as provocatively as she could down the road, hoping Silas saw every step.

"Sure," she heard him mutter, sounding distracted, much to her delight. "Be right there."

{X}

One thing Silas had expected when he got back to the hotel room was that Katherine would still be in a bad mood; whatever light, fluffy side she'd pulled out today he knew he wouldn't see again.

What he didn't expect when he opened the door was to find Katherine nowhere in sight, and Stefan and Elena sitting on the single bed closest to the window, centimetres apart, her hand on his chest, his hand in her hair. Stefan had a slight blush to his face, which led Silas to believe that whatever they had been doing, it had been rather intimate, or about to be. They jumped apart as soon as they heard Silas come into the room, both looking guilty as hell. Both of their hair was damp, which he really didn't want to think about, or the possibilities as to what they could have been doing, but their clothes were on. So they might have just been getting hot and heavy as Silas came in. And now was not the time to be reminding him of what happened to him two thousand years ago or of Katherine by cheating.

"Ooh, sorry, don't stop on my account." He said sarcastically, dumping his bag of groceries onto the other bed. His heart was kind of going out to Caroline. Whatever thing she and Stefan had going on, it was clearly only one-sided, not as strong as it looked. "It's not like we have other people to worry about like the travelers, and Damon." He hit heavy on the name, twisting the knife in deeper. Shame flitted on Elena's face as she looked away, stepping further away from a wincing Stefan.

"Why are you leading him on? You've made it obvious you love Damon, so why go back to Stefan? It's not fair to either of them." He hissed sharply at her. "And I don't even like Damon, but you shouldn't get his hopes up before dropping him again, so make up your mind, I get the feeling that your friends die inside with annoyance whenever you switch Salvatores."

"It's my fault, leave her alone." Stefan said angrily, and Silas spun on him. "You're right. It is your fault. In case you haven't noticed all the subtle-not-so-subtle hints I've been giving you, your best friend is in love with you, and I know you like her, so what are ya doing?" he snapped at an alarmed Stefan, who clearly hadn't seen Silas in a bad mood.  
"You know what? I'm going to go and find Katherine, and you two talk it out." Silas marched out of the room, very much enjoying Elena's obvious surprise, and across the hall, bursting into the room opposite and startling Katherine, who had just come out of the shower, only clad in a fat, white towel. She frowned at him. "Why are you so moody?"

"Elena and Stefan, kissing." was all he could get out as he stared at her, drinking her in. "What?!" she sounded shocked, though she tried to mask it. "Thought she'd already chosen the lucky Salvatore to preen with on his arm." She sneered, unzipping her bag and throwing some clothes onto the bed. He shrugged, although she couldn't see him. "Beats me, although, why-" he broke off abruptly when Katherine untied her towel, letting it fall to the ground softly. "What are you doing?" he asked, alarmed, looking away.

She turned around and he was struggling with the inner urge to kiss her amongst other things. "What? It's nothing you haven't seen before." she smirked cheekily. He was utterly wordless at the sight in front of him.

"Katherine, just get changed in the bathroom. Please." He said in a strangled voice, as soon as his brain started functioning again, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply. She frustrated him. One moment she was ignoring him, the next she was flirting with him and stripping in front of him.

"Fine." she went back to the bathroom, rolling her eyes. He sighed in relief now the temptation was gone and sat on the bed nearest to him; the rooms they had rented were very similar. He lay down on his side, but couldn't get the image of an indecent Katherine out of his head.

"The car's done!" Stefan yelled, sounding slightly nervous.

"We'll be right there!" Silas yelled back. He stood up and started packing Katherine's bag. Katherine peeped out the door."Hey, uh, will you grab me my shirt? It's, uh, the green one right on top."

"Yeah, sure." Silas handed to her, trying not to notice her hair brushing down the side of her face in damp strands, because he thought it was achingly perfect, sheer beauty. Everything about her was.

"Thanks." she muttered, taking it and turning away.  
He resumed packing her bag when a flicker of movement caught his eye. Looking up, he saw the bathroom door slightly ajar, and Katherine running her hands through her hair. Silas' heartbeat quickened, thrumming a nervous pace throughout his body as he watched her for several captivating moments, letting temptation get the better of him, before averting his eyes. She was doing her best to charm him and she was succeeding.

After a few agonising moments, he could hear the soft padding noise her bare feet made as she crossed the carpet towards him, lightly touching his shoulder. His entire body jolted, as though electrocuted with an intense yearning for her and he turned around to see what she wanted. And she kissed him. Shocked and overwhelmed with desire, he let her for a moment, before pulling away. They were still only centimetres apart, their breaths mingling, the chemistry between them fizzling out of control. It either was that, or how much he missed her that made him grab her arm and lean back in to close the gap between them, sealing his lips over hers in a hesitant kiss. She took his face in her hands as they began to kiss more intensely, the passion behind it rapidly building up. He could feel her satisfaction, rolling into him in warm waves. It chased all thoughts from his mind but her, how her body soap smelled like lavender, the softness of her body pressing hard against his, but most importantly, the delicious burning touch of their mouths colliding, making him see stars, a warm glow spreading over him, a bubble of happiness that urged him on further. Oh, how he'd missed her, an ugly hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach and it felt like forever since they'd been together-he just loved her too much to stop. Some part of him knew she'd done this deliberately, ignore him and make him feel guilty, so when she made a move at him, he wouldn't resist, but another part just didn't care. He missed her too much. But a niggling thought pushed it's way into his mind, of one certain ex-girlfriend who very much wanted him back, and was willing to kill Katherine in order to do so. Ever so reluctantly, he stopped and stepped away from direct contact with her. He'd let his emotions get in the way. He couldn't again.

"No, no, Katherine, we can't. Just, uh, you know..." he gestured vaguely, taking deep breaths. "Sorry."  
She nodded, taking it surprisingly well, covering her mouth with her hand. "Mmm hmm, yeah, yeah I understand. Sorry."

"Yeah. We have a long night ahead of us, so maybe we should just..." he pointed halfheartedly at the bag.

"Yeah, uh... you know, why don't you go, uh, settle the bill and I'll finish packing." she scooped her drying hair back from her face and smiled at him.

He left as fast as he could.

{X}

The plan hadn't exactly gone as expected. But he'd given in, and all Katherine cared about right now was breaking down all his walls until they were together again. The farmhouse Enzo had described was in sight, now all they had to do was find Damon.

"Place looks depressed," Silas nodded as they walked up the cobbly path. "Damon must be here!"

He was right, Katherine thought. The house seemed small and insignificant. The walls were painted white, which had been dirtied into a grubby greyish colour over the years. It seemed ramshackle and rundown, the red tiles on the roof crumbling away. Several of the windows seemed to have been smashed outwards. Someone had been trying to escape.  
They walked around to the front door, which still was ajar, and she immediately saw Damon, shabby and bloodstained, looking like a demon from hell. The blood smeared around his face made it hard to see whether he had any distinguishable emotions when he saw them, but his eyes widened in definete fear when he saw Elena.

"Elena. Don't. Do not." Elena ignored him and stepped closer to the door.

"I said don't!" Damon snarled, backing away.  
"If you come in here, you ain't coming out." Damon warned, his voice heavy.

"What exactly happened in here?" Silas asked, stepping into view, smirking. He seemed to be finding the situation as hilarious as Katherine did.

"I wanted revenge. I got stuck with a vampire virus... almost killed my last friend... typical Damon." he shrugged nonchalantly, but Katherine could see the fear in his eyes as he kept slowly backing away from Elena.

"Idiot." she muttered to herself. Damon glared at her, not able to do anything else.

"Enzo texted me the address here. Damon, we're here to help you." Elena pleaded.

"You can't help me! I feed on vampires now. You and Stefan are both vampires. Do yourselves a favour and leave." he growled at them.

"Well, that's not going to happen." Stefan said stubbornly. Damon shot towards the back door, before rebounding off the spell keeping him caged in a desperate attempt to escape his newfound cravings. "Stay back!" he yelled at them, the dark veins crawling beneath his skin.

"We're not afraid of you, Damon." Silas rolled his eyes in irritance.

Damon looked confused and annoyed, turning his back on them in defeat. Elena, looking determined, stepped inside the house. "I'm not leaving you alone."

Damon turned back around at that, his eyes widening when he saw Elena inside. "No. No, No!" he bared his elongated fangs at her, trying to force her out.  
"You gotta get out," he pushed Elena away angrily, but it didn't deter her. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I'm proving to you that you're not a lost cause, Damon." she persisted, walking towards him as he backed away. Stefan stepped inside as Elena picked up a jagged piece of glass from the ground.

"Elena!" Damon sounded panicked. When Katherine peered closer, she saw Elena had sliced her hand open with the glass.

"Elena, that's not going to work." she sighed, though knowing Elena wouldn't listen anyway.

"See," Elena said, holding her bleeding hand out to Damon. Damon turned around, hand to his mouth to prevent himself from feeding on her. "Damon. You can resist this... you can do it. Why? Because you love me and that love is stronger than any craving."  
Katherine felt like gagging in disgust at the sappiness of that line. She'd never say that.

"Get away from me, Elena." he snapped, his control cracking.

"Elena, he's going to feed..." Stefan warned nervously.

"No. No. He's not going to. He's not going to.. You can do this Damon," Elena gently tried to turn Damon around, grasping her shoulder. "There you go. Turn around."

Damon finally faced her, tight-lipped, restraining himself.

"There you go." Elena whispered in relief.

And then Damon attacked her. He ripped into her neck with furious intensity, gobbling greedily. Stefan charged at him. "Damon, STOP!" he yelled, but his attempts were unsuccessful.

"Damon, Let go of her. Let go of her! LET GO!"

Katherine stepped in, inching towards a broken bit of chair on the floor. She threw it at Stefan, trying to provide him with a distraction, she couldn't let Stefan die. But Stefan just looked at her blankly, and didn't pick it up. Silas grabbed her arm and pushed her out the door before she had even registered that he had followed her in.

"He's going to kill her." she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Here. Damon, look over here." Silas said, grabbing onto his arm. He was obviously compelling him, since Damon would not under normal circumstances listen to anyone, reluctantly pulled away from Elena, looking at him. Stefan held his wrist out towards Damon. "That's good. Feed on me. Feed on me."

Damon turned his attention to his brother and moved towards him slowly, but before he could bite him, Stefan snapped his neck, sending him sprawling down to the floor unconscious. Silas wrinkled his nose in such a cute disgusted manner, that he made Katherine smile a little, despite the drama that had just unfolded. "Why I help you is beyond me." Silas said, hopping carefully over Damon's body and out the door.

"Aren't you going to help?" Elena yelled after him, looking helplessly down at her boyfriend.  
"I didn't do this for him, nor do I care whether he stays or goes, so no." Silas grinned, getting back into the car. Katherine followed, wanting to avoid dragging Damon's bloody, dirty body back to the car.

Once they got into the car, Silas looked over at her, as she stared at him. "I know what you did, at the hotel, and you can't do that again." he whispered, all traces of humour wiped from his face.

"Yes I can because I love you. And you love me, and, well, do you really want me to tell you the birds and the bees?" she smirked. She wasn't losing him that easily.

"No, just expect me to compel you to stay away from me if that's what it takes for you to remain safe." he hissed angrily at her. She looked away, stung. He could be infuriating when it came to desperate measures.

She would have to put an end to that.

"Fine. But it doesn't mean I won't stop trying." And she grabbed him by the nape of his neck, pulled him forward and kissed him, hard and unforgettable, before he had even realised what had happened. Every second of her life had been building up to him, the warmth in her stomach whenever he touched her, her mouth going dry whenever he kissed her, as though she needed him to stay alive, to quench her thirst. He made a soft murmur of protest in the back of his throat, but instantly softened at her touch, despite his best efforts to move away. She released him after a mind-blowing moment, with a warm, triumphant smile, as he looked at her in shock, no words falling from his kiss-swollen lips.

"You gonna compel me now?" she whispered softly, smoothing the side of his face with her hand in satisfaction. He gulped nervously, his gaze on her mouth, when the front doors clicked open one after the other, making them jump apart in surprise as Stefan and Elena got in. Damon must have been dumped unceremoniously in the boot. Stefan peeled away from the broken farmhouse, shooting down the road as fast as he could, before someone called the police, or saw them.

Silas still hadn't answered her, he just stared at her in wonder, all the way home.  
**  
Thanks for reading and for waiting so patiently. I, again, am very sorry for the delay. :-) xx**


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